The Rise of Nightfire
by Nikolaides
Summary: The most dangerous criminal gang, Nightfire, is taken down by Blitz, an Infernape who lives at the guild, and his team and friends. But they escape shortly after, and make revenge against those who took them down a high priority. Except it isn't that simple. Blitz finds himself having relationship troubles, only made worse when the Gardevoir of Team Nightfire, Ariel, intervenes.
1. Chapter 1- Aftermath (Blitz)

**Welcome, Everyone!**

Pokemon Fan Fiction - Team Nightfire

Rated: MA - Explicit content present

This story is about the adventure of an Infernape called Blitz, as he deals with the consequences of fighting the most wanted criminal gang of Ethos: Team Nightfire. But with the interest of multiple Pokemon into his romantic life, the decisions he has to make become increasingly harder.

Loosely based on a Pokemon mystery dungeon sort of setting.

Author's _note: O_ _k, this is my first time at writing a story like this. Just a warning, later on in the story I will be introducing smut. 1st few chapters will be largely about the characters and scene, the more interesting stuff may come later, and I will happily accept any criticism or support through pm, I am quite new to this sort of thing. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story + smut!_

 **Chapter 1 - Aftermath**

 _DDDDDRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG!_

I lashed my hand out to strike in the general direction of the noise on my bedside cabinet, the small but loud alarm clock tumbled onto the floor, still going off.

"Urgh..." I groaned in frustration. "I'm too tired for this, I just wanted more sleep."

I picked up the alarm clock off the floor, and turned it off, and yawned, before I stretched behind me, to loosen up after the uncomfortable sleep I had on an otherwise soft bed. I trudge towards my sink and mirror, and washed my face in the awfully cold water, and glanced up at the bruised face of an Infernape. Me. My nose looked wonky, my eyes were both swollen, both blackened, and my puffy cheek did little to help my poor attempt at a smile. This same sort of injuries littered my limbs, my white fur bloodied and plates scuffed and battered. Each bruise told a story of last night, every cut detailing every moment of the fight.

I headed down the corridor, through the building, and to the entrance, turning back to gaze upon the brilliance of the guild, a building which extended tens of meters underground, filled head to toe with keen adventurers who helped keep the nearby town safe. This is where I worked, lived, socialized. Existed. And it was brilliant. Mostly, anyway. I traveled towards Ethos, the local town. See, yesterday was one of the few exceptions, one of the worst moments of my time at the Guild. My team had the great idea of taking down team Nightfire, along with the help of Team Knights, comprising of a shiny Lucario, Rolf, a large Sceptile, Arthur, and a hulking Feraligatr, Alex. After that dreadful fight, I was now two men down, both in hospital, on life support, after sustaining severe injuries from the fight with Team Nightfire. They were the group that had evaded capture for so long, taking down the best teams, even killing some of the greater adventurers known to the guild. But we finally got them in jail, all three defeated, all locked up, but at what cost? My two team mates? Team Knights got out okay, roughed up, but otherwise unharmed.

I caught sight of Rolf as I travel down the dusty path to Ethos. I called out his name, but it came out hoarse and croaky. But nevertheless, he turned and ran over to greet me. As he arrives, he tenderly hugged me, and I hugged back, a mutual understanding conveyed perfectly with just one action.

"I'm so sorry, Blitz," he started. "But we got them. We finally got them"

"I know. I'm going to see them now. I need to see Ariel," I replied softly. "She had...what I can only describe as a perfect opportunity to kill me. But she didn't"

"Blitz, don't get yourself caught up in that. We fought well. We deserved that victory."

I turned, walking away from Rolf, muttering coldly, "Torch and Shaolan did not deserve that." I was speaking about my team mates.

"Blitz...sorry, I didn't mean it like that..."

Shaolan, or Sha for short, the Gallade on my team, was caught by Ghost, Nightfire's brute force, named so due to his color; a translucent-white Gyarados, who reveled purely in hurting others, and to be honest a mental threat. He solved problems with violence, and violence only. Ghost was the Pokemon who mauled him, and Sha suffered serious trauma to his head. Torch, who is quite a stocky Blaziken, was taken down by Ariel, as Torch tried to pull her off me when Ariel had drawn her dagger and pushed it against my neck. And Torch suffered the consequences for intervening. Ariel was the newest addition to Nightfire, having previously been the most wanted criminal, and now the most formidable member of Nightfire. A shiny Gardevoir, with a scar across her eye, who actually walked, as opposed to the normal hovering for her kind. She had an unbelievable amount of strength, and psychic abilities that would parallel the strongest Alakazam, and again seemed almost as sadistic as Ghost, if not more. She just contained it a lot better. And she is finally away now. For good. The third member, and leader, Night, was a Garchomp, who had filed his wing-blades to be sharper than a sword, using them defensively would hurt an attacker. He truly lived up to the phrase 'a good defense is a great offense'. He could compete against top tacticians in the guild easily and was the reason Team Nightfire was so elusive. But he was also a great fighter, using his smarts to outmaneuver opponents, and using this, he was able to take on Rolf and Alex on his own, despite being at a disadvantage to both.

We walked in silence the rest of the way, passing the everyday populace of Ethos, the shops, houses, restaurants. The town was alive, buzzing. Word had got out about the arrest of Team Nightfire, and was already the talk of the town, with Pokémon murmuring about Rolf walking through the town. Their team was better known than mine, and so got most of the attention, Pokémon often approaching and thanking Rolf directly, and then leaving. We head closer to the center, towards the jail. I follow Rolf inside and meet a Magnezone, the Warden.

"We're here to see Nightfi..."

"Ariel," I interrupt Rolf. "We're here to see Ariel"


	2. Chapter 2 - Ariel (Ariel)

_Author's note: I've decided that the best way to do this would be to switch between the characters every couple or so chapters, to follow each one around individually._

 _The name in the brackets is the character who is speaking for this chapter, so in this case, it will be from Ariel's perspective._

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed in pain, the sound echoing off the walls, down the corridor of sniggering inmates, obviously amused by my situation. I made a mental note to deal with them later, do the guard a favor and remove them from this prison and their lives. I counted down the time from the last electric shock delivered by the chains, from a minute. I was the most wanted criminal, and to deal with me in this town until I was transferred to a max security prison, their plan was to deliver a large shock every minute in a cell where my psychic field had been reduced by some sort of barrier. It was new tech to me, anyway.

I was about 40 seconds in when Blitz showed up. Along with his friend, Rolf. I'd already done my bit of research about them before the battle, and it proved useful. But...I just couldn't do it. I had both of them at some point in the fight, I could have rid them both. But it still puzzles me why I didn't do it. Irrelevant, though. The door sirens wailed as the door opened, alerting all the Magneton and Magnemite patrolling and standing guard, and showing an Infernape and Lucarios' silhouettes, as they paced down towards my cell, passing Night, the leader of Team Nightfire, a Garchomp renowned more for his tactical skill more than his fighting, not that he was bad at it, he just had Ghost and me fighting with him as well.

No, Blitz and Rolf headed straight for my cell, and I was still counting.

"3...2...1..." I muttered out loud, preparing myself for the shock, grimacing as I felt my body convulse against the wall I stood up against, sapping my energy and burning my body. After the shock was delivered, I collapsed on the floor in a bit of a heap, before recomposing myself, and sat against the wall, looking at Blitz' horrified face.

"You can't do that. That's an infringement of Pokemon rights!" Blitz complained to the officer.

"She doesn't deserve those rights. Anyway, if they hadn't done this, everyone here would be in danger" Rolf justified, still looking at me, almost into my eyes, I think.

Blitz crouched down to be at my eye level, a puzzled look on his face. But his expression turned quite quickly into anger.

"Why would you do that to them?" He asked, anger seeping into his voice, but otherwise calm.

I glance up at him, smiling over the memory. "They got in the way. Not my fault we had to dispose of them"

He shook his head in apparent disgust. I looked him up and down; he hadn't cleaned himself off from the battle, he was still bloodied, tattered, rough. The flame on his head was still dimmed, after the battering Ghost and I gave him.

"Ok..." He paused, clearly making an effort to remain calm. "Ok... Why didn't you 'dispose' of me, too? you had the chance..." He asked. His puzzled face returned as he said it, he must have been thinking about asking this first. As a response, I look up at Rolf and the Magneton accompanying them, and gesture them to move away from the cell a little. They comply, like the gullible people they are, and I move closer to Blitz. The chains on my wrist, attached to the wall behind me, wouldn't let me get too far though. So I motioned for Blitz to come a little closer. He moved his head closer to the metal bars, his hands wrapping around them. That's all I needed.

I did a small jump, extended my legs in front of me, and just managed to rest it on Blitz' hand when...

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH FUCK! FUCK THAT FUCKING HURTS" He yelled, and was sent in a spasm away from the cell, sprawled on the floor. Rolf and the Magneton immediately tended to Blitz. At least he knew the kind of pain I was in now, I guess, but I did it more to get another back at him. I hear myself cackling, amused by my own actions and understanding of electricity. The current passed straight through me and into Blitz, so we both got the shock, just I was used to it. This time I look Blitz in the eye, keeping contact until he broke it getting up, and walking away, with Rolf in pursuit.

After they left, I endured several more shocks, before I decided it was about time. I had been pulling the connection of the chain in the wall for the last 2 hours, which in turn rubbed my hands raw, leaving blood on the chain where I pulled. But it had worked, the chunks of metal flew out the wall, but I caught each one before, and put it back in before a guard saw. But it would be loose now.

So I waited for the patrols to move out of sight, with about 10 seconds to my next shock. I moved towards the bars, taking out the metal blocks holding me back, and placed my hands on the two middle bars, pulling them. Ever so slightly, they started to bend, and weaken. Pokemon always underestimate my physical strength, and I take full advantage of it wherever I can. As the shock came in, my hands gripped the bar in the spasm, and as I applied my strength, the electric spasms gave me just enough extra power to pull them apart, enough to slip through, just in time to see a bewildered officer returning on his route. I send a dark pulse in his direction, hitting him square on, and knocking him out cold. The usual laughter of the cells was now completely silent. I finished climbing through cell bars I had bent, still with the chains on my wrists, so I had to pull the metal blocks through the gap too. They made me slightly more cumbersome, but it wasn't too bad. I turned to the cell next to mine, containing a Houndoom, who had been the Pokemon I grew to hate the most, due to having to look at him laugh every time I was shocked. He cowered back in the corner, without any space to run. I unleashed a devastating beam of energy, a hyper beam, through the bars. I heard the bars snap as they came off under the force, as the beam struck the Houndoom. After the light died down, all was left were the charred remains of the wretched creature, and a huge hole in the cell. Of course, this would attract the attention of any officers between here and the exit. I headed further down into the prison first, quietly going around the guards' routes, taking down a couple with dark pulses and jamming their unconscious bodies through cell bars, before I reached a padded door. Almost like an insane asylum, I guess. Fitting, for Ghost at least. I look at the keypad on the magnetically locked door, noticing where the numbers had been slightly rubbed off by continued use, identifying the 3, 7, 1 and 9 keys. Unfortunately, there were 24 different combinations of these numbers. But I just had to try something easier to remember, for the guards, which would be the code they would use.

"1379" I try first. No Avail. "Okay...7913" I try next, the order from top left to bottom right on the pad. The green light pinged, and the door opening up, to reveal the white-translucent Gyarados thrashing around in the next section of the room, and a Magneton and a Magnemite turning around to face me. The Magnemite began charging electricity, whilst the Magneton span towards me, using Gyro ball. I quickly raised my arm and pulled it across my body, the metal block at the end of the chain attached to my wrist flew around quickly, making solid contact with the Pokemon, sending the Magneton into the reinforced glass, before raising my other arm to flick the other block upwards, so that it flew in between me and the Magnemite, just in time to block the Discharge attack. Well, I say block, I still felt some of it, but the metal chains didn't seem to conduct too well. I charged down the Magnemite, swinging both of my arms from behind me to in front of me, almost clapping if you will, and as intended, the blocks swung around me from both directions, and smashed into the guard on either side, shattering the Pokemon, springs, gears, and coils littering the floor, as the metal blocks fell. I looked towards Ghost, who was pounding the glass, trying to get out. Insolent beast, he was trying to use brute force to make his way out of the room, and you could so where he had focused his energy. He paused once he noticed me head over, to the panel, as he came up close to the reinforced perspex window, like a curious dog. I used the same code to unlock the barrier preventing him from charging down anyone who entered.

"Ghost, take out every guard in the prison. I don't care what you do with them, while I get Night. Meet me at the entrance in ten" I order. Though upset that I had told him to do something, he still barreled off down the corridor immediately, clunks of metal and mechanical whirring and buzzing accompanying his body as he tore through the guards.

Meanwhile, I headed up towards Night, seeing him in a more normal cell, but with the steel bars and floor, still guarded by two Magneton, as his dragon type attacks would not work on them, meaning he couldn't escape easily. I charged down the two Magneton keeping guard, as they realized too late who I was, as I grabbed one, throwing it into the bars of Night's cell, Night driving the tip of his wing down the Magneton, slicing it clean in half. The second Magneton attacked me, forcing me to dive out of the way of a magnet bomb it hurled, but I kept my momentum by rolling, jumping up into the bars of another cell, and pushing off them to tackle the Magneton, which started to send out electric pulses, but thankfully a lot weaker than the ones in the cell. I smashed this one into the bars until they were mangled enough for Night to get out. He stepped over the wreckage, nodding in appreciation to me. He glanced at the chains and raised up his sharp wing again, to try and get them off. His other wing looked blunted, which means he must have tried slicing through the bars at some point. I held my wrist out, and he lowered the sharp end of his wing into the keyhole, moving it around slightly before the chain unlocked, and I removed my wrist and repeated the same process for the other. I rubbed my wrist with my other hand after they had both come off.

"Did the chains hurt or something?" Night commented on my actions, looking around him at the guards.

"No. But they do it in the movies, so I thought I should follow suit" I grinned. Night chuckled, shaking his head

"I've got the Magnezone" He mentioned, heading towards the front of the jail. I waited for Ghost to finish his rounds, hearing a loud siren go off from the Magnezone, which changed frequency and pitch each time He was struck by Night, gradually fading as he was pummeled into unconsciousness. Night proceeded to look at the revealed circuitry, removing a couple of chips from the Magnezone.

"He won't be waking up from that now" He grinned, leaving the jail in the cover of the moonlight. Ghost followed Night out, and I followed Ghost.

"Oh, actually, hang on. I'll meet up with you guys later...I have some things I need to take care of" I muttered.

"Fine by me" The gruff voice of Ghost replied, not even looking back to acknowledge me. I shrug, heading off in the opposite direction. Towards the guild. I now knew why I didn't kill Blitz. I was just not sure what to do with that information.


	3. Chapter 3 - Rose (Blitz)

_Authors note: I realize I'm still adding characters, and that the chapters don't exactly follow timeline exactly at this point, just bear with! But hopefully, this should be the last main character addition. Enjoy!_

After we left, Rolf suggested leaving for the hospital. It wasn't a far journey, just the other side of town. I needed to pay Sha and Torch a visit, I just didn't want to have to go through the process of dealing with what happened. I don't think I could handle it again. I'm sure they would look a lot better than they did last night, but that's hardly any reconciliation. I voiced my concerns to Rolf as we walked through Ethos

"Well, what do I say to them? _'Oh, we got them by the way. Isn't that great? You can use that money to pay for the hospital stay_!'" I complained, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

"C'mon. You owe them a visit as their leader. And the Blissey there doesn't charge guild members. Not the point though. You'd want them to visit you, even if it is just to sit there and hold their hand through a hard time" He justified.

"Yeah, you're right"

I liked Rolf for this reason; he was able to rationalize and justify anything, and making me feel less uneasy. I suppose that's why he leads Team Knights, one of the few more experienced teams still around. My team had been around for almost as long as theirs. But they had a few adventures that led to them being a well-known name. I mean, my team didn't have a name, never did. We were listed as individual explorers, we just operated like a team. The Guild never liked it being unofficial, but we brought in enough revenue for them between us they overlooked it. I glanced at Rolf as he turned away from me to look at the shops. It seemed like he was relaxed and calm, but even so, the Lucario's right ear kept pricking every now and again, looking this way and that. Just small signs I'd learned to pick up on in Rolf over time.

"You don't want to either" I broke the silence I created. "I mean, you don't want to visit them, for the same reason as me"

"I don't like it either. I just know that we should," He agreed, looking back at me. Just through a look, he again assured me he knew what he was doing. He didn't need to explain himself, most of the time, he knows best. "It's only just up the road now"

We entered the hospital, a small building, but it had plenty of space inside. The floor and walls were made of white ceramic tile, cold on the soles of my feet, but it made it look very clean, professional. An assortment of Pokemon were inside, but it looked like the doctors outweighed the patients here. I spotted a Scyther walking past, who used to be a member of the Guild as well but entered the medical profession after a few years. He taught me how to fight properly, and was the reason I started as an adventurer. I went over to catch up with him, as Rolf approached the front desk, asking about the room Sha and Torch were in.

Rolf dragged me to the elevator, as I waved goodbye to the Scyther. We only went up one floor, but it felt like forever. Torch and Sha were a mess, or at least that's how Rolf had described their injuries. After the fight, we were able to transfer them to the hospital very quickly due to the fact the Hospital had Staraptors in employ, to carry Pokemon quickly to the hospital if it was urgent. But it was Rolf who dealt with that after the fight. I just couldn't look for myself. Not sure I could now. I looked to Rolf for support, but he was avoiding my gaze as we went up as well, and I felt a large sense of foreboding wash over me. As the elevator opened, he led me to the 3rd door on our right and led me inside. There was only one bed. I saw the unmistakable furred legs of a Blaziken poking out from under the blanket.

"Torch?" I croaked, tears welling up in my eyes.

"Blitz..." the faint reply came back, as the Blaziken in the bed slowly turned her neck to face me. "You're okay..." she sighed. It was a happy sigh, but she sounded very weak. I walked over closer, resting my arms on the side rest of the bed, and gently brushed the side of her neck as I stroked her cream hair back, and couldn't help but smile, as she did too, her brown eyes still soft, like melted chocolate, even when she was in pain.

"How are you holding up?" I ask, keeping my voice low.

"Well, I feel fine. Ish. But I'm on a drug cocktail at the moment" She replied, laughing slightly. I found that same soft smile returning to my face. It put me at ease knowing she didn't feel much. Rolf had painted her picture as quite horrific, and I was glad I was spared the sight by the blanket. I saw Ariel's attack on Torch, Ariel's dagger already drawn, Ariel went mad, stabbing, slashing, as Alex tried to help, but Ariel had spun around, kicking Alex hard across the face, as he flew back. Torch tried to attack, having blocked most of the stabs and slashed with limbs, so wanted to get the better of Ariel. Ariel simply deflected the attack, driving the dagger into Torch. I stopped looking at the point, and I could never forgive myself for not being able to help. It wasn't the way to go, so I'm glad it ended up not being the case.

"Blitz?" She asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. "What about Sha?"

I looked at her, searching for an answer to give, realizing I had none. I slowly stood up and turned towards Rolf, who was stood by the door, avoiding my gaze. "Rolf...?" I appealed. He frowned further, closing his eyes and tilting his head further away. I felt my mouth open, I felt tears building up in my eyes, but I choked them back. I went to speak but could find no words.

"H-h-he's...Oh my god." I stuttered, stumbling backward onto a chair, just before my legs could give way. "He's gone?" I finished my sentence, affirmed by Rolf nodding. I felt so vulnerable, weak. I was opening myself up in front of Torch, in front of Rolf, and I didn't like how it felt at all. But I couldn't help it either. I looked back over to Torch to see how she was handling the news. The giddy look had been removed from her face, a somber one replacing it, but she kept herself composed, except for the fact she was clenching onto the fire proof duvet over her. I guess the drugs were strong, as Torch was more composed than I was. I began to reminisce about Sha, feeling a few tears half rolling down the side of my face, before evaporating, mostly. I met him while he was a Raltz, at the prep school in Ethos, before I convinced him to start up a team with Torch and me. We teased him when he turned into a Kirlia, but it didn't take long, soon he evolved into a Gallade, and became one of the most competent fighters I knew. We shared so many memories, so many secrets, also. In the blink of an eye. Gone. Even sat down, my legs felt like jelly, with my arms that held my head shaking out of pain.

Rolf came over to try and help me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Piss off Rolf!" I snapped at him through my tears, flailing an arm in his direction, as he backed away to avoid it. "I just...I just want to be left alone" I murmured, turning my head back down to the floor, the fur on my cheeks wet with the tears, to the point where the teardrops were no longer being absorbed, and just rolled off of my face, and onto the floor.

 _*Knock knock*_

Rolf opened the door to let in another Pokemon. A Gardevoir stepped through the frame, with blushed, red cheeks, perfect hair, with curly bits dropping onto her collarbone, visible from here. Her thin figure expanded into a flowing dress at the bottom, which seemed to trail behind her slightly as she glided across to greet me.

"Rose..." I sniffed, acknowledging her being here. "I'm sorry you have to see me like this."

"I've been searching for you all day. I'm sorry to hear what happened, but you can't forget what was achieved in its place. Nevertheless, I brought you these..." she pulled out 3 assortments of flowers behind her, handing one to Rolf, Torch, and finally me.

Torch spoke up first. "Oh, Rose, you got me Dragontongues! How did you know?" She sounded amazed.

"Lucky guess, I suppose." Rose smiled at Torch, turning towards me. She eased me up from the chair, onto my unstable legs, with a look of endearment on her face. She embraced me for a hug, which I gave back, holding on tighter than I had intended. She lingered in the hug for a bit longer, before releasing, turning around to take my flowers out of the basket she brought. She had given me a perfect set of black orchids, and I knew why she had given them to me. I turned the tag to confirm my suspicions. 'In memory of Shaolan' it read. I looked over to Rolf's flowers, an assortment of blue and green tulips, odd colors for it, but I knew why she had chosen these flowers. They were in memory of our Team mates. Rolf's were to remind him of Alex and Arthur. And mine for Sha. I'm not sure about Torch's, probably just her favorite flowers.

"Thank you." I raised the flowers slightly, to indicate what I was thanking her for.

"I'm not done yet," she smiled. She pulled out a small basket of eggs. "Blissey asked me to give these to you because she said you looked a bit rough" I felt myself giving a half smile through my tears. It only just occurred to me how I looked, I was still rough and battered. Hell, even Torch was cleaned up better than I was. I quickly gave an apology to Rose for not being presentable, which she, of course, dismissed immediately.

 _Ah. A basket full of soft boiled eggs, which are supposed to have healing powers. Well, they do, but she didn't have to go to so much trouble for me. Well, I suppose they aren't that busy..._ I thought to myself. I turned back to Torch, reaching for her hand, and holding hers between mine. Her hand was very warm, even though mine were already fairly warm already, I could feel the heat radiate from her hand.

"BLITZ, ROLF" The monotonous, mechanical voice entered through the door, followed by the Magnemite that said it

"BLITZ, ROLF," It repeated. "THERE'S BAD NEWS...TEAM NIGHTFIRE HAVE ESCAPED" It stated, bobbing up and down at a huge rate, its one eye darting every where.

"Oh, shit," I heard Rolf curse as he pushed off the wall, approaching the Magnemite. I stood up out of the chair, refusing to believe the news already delivered. Rolf continued to talk to the guard. "When?"

"ABOUT TEN MINUTES AGO" It reported. I shook my head several times.

"No...No, we were just there. They were all locked up. Tell him Rolf" I shook my head, stumbling towards Rolf. I felt so dizzy I needed to hold onto something, so I tried to grasp the wall. Rolf caught my arm before I did so.

"Blitz... We weren't there 10 minutes ago." He sighed. He looked so in control, but his hands were shaking, not as much as mine, but I could still feel him tensing in his wrists. "I feared this may happen. I'm sorry"

He sat me back down, and I still shook my head in denials. "But...B-But how? Rolf, I can't go through this again. I.." I stopped, holding back oncoming tears, getting too upset was the last thing I needed right now. I balled up my fists and pressed them into my eyes to help. "Rolf..." My voice cracked twice saying his name. "Are they going to come back for us?" I was so engrossed in trying to process the situation I hadn't noticed Rose had already come to my side and was kneeling down, holding my left arm and stroking the fur slightly, possibly trying to reassure me. I only noticed because she was going over a heavy bruise and it was starting to hurt, but I ignored it.

Rolf turned towards Rose. "Stay with Torch and Blitz. He's in shock, and I'm not even sure about Torch, but you seem to be composed enough" He ordered, glancing over to Torch, who was just lying in silence. It was so like Rolf to have things under control already.

"I need to see if the town is safe. I suspect they have just run for it, but I need to check."I'll see you tomorrow" He muttered, leaning down to me and speaking quickly and sharply. I don't suppose I had much of a choice. I nodded slowly, but not that would have changed anything, as he had already headed for the door, without his flowers. I felt myself deflate. Now I had lost Sha for nothing.


	4. Chapter 4 - Meeting (Blitz)

I met up with Rolf, and the rest of his team the next morning; the Blissey in the hospital very kindly offering us as some spare beds last night, for Rose and me. I cleaned myself up while I was there, and I looked a lot more presentable. My fur was now clean and soft, the bruises on my arms largely concealed by my brown fur, and all cuts were sewn by Blissey as well. Rolf commented on this as soon as he saw me.

"Blitz, you look a lot better today. Less scruffy." he addressed. He otherwise went straight to business. "Anyway, Arthur and I did a little bit of canvassing, and nobody saw them since the alarm went off. They have escaped completely," He delivered the bad news. "The prison was devastated. You should see it for yourself, really." He shook his head, grimacing. Arthur took over.

"Blitz. I'm very sorry for your loss, but with Nightfire still out, you need to watch your back. You remember Team Comet? They managed to detain Ghost for a period of about 30 minutes and tried to get to the police station. We found them murdered in their guild rooms the next day. Nightfire may come after us" He assessed.

Now Arthur was something special. Honest, loyal, and smart, he stood largely as the face of Team Knights, despite not running it himself, he planned out everything they did and is responsible for the takedown of several criminals through very intricate traps. But Nightfire were a bit too good for that. Night saw straight through it, giving us a disadvantage to begin with, however, Arthur's quick thinking of hiding my team was a good idea; Team Nightfire never saw us coming.

"We are going to quickly warn the townspeople and guild members about this" Alex quipped. "Especially as the police are unable to themselves"

"That bad?" I asked. There was no way Nightfire could take out the entire garrison of the prison, surely.

"Yeah, that bad" Arthur confirmed, all three grimacing at the same time. They'd obviously all been to the prison together. "We'll inform you when we are back" Arthur concluded, following as Rolf and Alex left the building.

I hugged Rose goodbye and headed for my room. When I entered, the first thing I noticed was a note on my desk. Next to my job request documents I kept, detailing the list of outlaws I was chasing, and Pokemon I was helping, was a scrap of paper with perfect cursive writing on it, and a drop of dried blood on the corner. The note read - 'Meet me tomorrow night behind the Kecleon shop, near the cliff. Alone. ~A'

Ariel's name immediately sprung to mind, but I dismissed the thought of her trying to meet up with me after that. But after a few minutes of thinking about who else it could be, Ariel was the only person it could apply to. I only just managed to put the note in a drawer, when there was a knock on the door. I approached and glanced through the crack near the hinges, seeing it was Rose. I opened up and let her inside, closing the door behind me.

"Hey, Rose, how can I help?" I ask. I couldn't possibly think what she would want from me, we had just spent last night and this morning in each others company.

"O-okay..." She stuttered. She paused, inhaling and exhaling audibly, before returning to her train of thought. "Ok, look, Blitz, I have really admired you for years, your work, your team, and you. And as time goes on, I can't help but feel stronger towards you, more attracted to you." She paused, and what looked like she was kicking herself inside, but she carried on regardless.

"With all this happening, I thought you could use someone to stand by you through this tough time..."

"Rose!" I interrupted, knowing full well that she would have been talking for too long by the time she reached her point. "Rose, I'm very sorry, but I don't think this is s..." This time she interrupted me. She broke my sentence by raising both her hands to reach my cheeks, and she leaned forward, pushing her lips against mine, her thin, but soft lips moulding around mine, eyes closed, as her hand dropped to my shoulder, and I felt myself reacting, my hands reaching up to her waist, pulling her towards me, as her instigating lips pressed against mine, the intensity of the kiss gradually increasing. I found myself kissing her back, both of us lost in the moment. Rose took a step back, grinning. Both of us were breathing not heavily, but audibly, from the kiss.

"So?" She asked, a suggestive tone entering her voice, giving me an irresistible look at the same time. I couldn't say no, not after that. I fought to think up of an excuse but ran out of both time and options.

"Rose... I don't know," I sighed "let me think about it first"

She smirked at me, turning around to leave, glancing backward as she reached the door. "Well...I know you could sure use the distraction. You know where to find me" She said, her soothing voice ringing around the room. I felt conflicted, I had never thought of Rose in that way before. We have known each other for a few years now, due to both being in the Guild. Rose focused her work on helping Pokemon find things or rescue others, and she was good at it. But, through our time as friends, I've always believed our friendship to be platonic. I fell for Torch a while back, but kept it to myself, as I didn't want it to affect any missions. But I had got over that a while ago. But the more I thought about Rose and me, the more I liked the idea.

But I had to get back to the matter at hand. I pulled the note out of the desk to read it once more, not that I didn't understand what it said originally, more that I wasn't sure if it was a trap. It could easily be a dirty, Team Nightfire underhand tactic to take me down on my own. If I were to meet Ariel, I would have to have someone keep overwatch. Or two. Just in case she pulled anything funny, or if she showed up with help herself. Anyway, she wouldn't know if there were others if I got the right people. And I knew just who I had in mind. Team Knights, with Arthur on their team, would be able to get them somewhere safe to watch the meeting. The more I thought about what could happen, the more my gut twisted and turned, I was almost sure it would be a trap. But regardless, I decided I would go, but I had all day to think about it.

As I didn't have a functioning team, I thought it would be too dangerous to go after anything myself. At least anything worth my time. Any explorer could return an item to an owner. Only a select few can attack an outlaw's hideout. So I decided to take over sentry duty from the Primeape at the gates. Sentry duty was basically just sitting at the gate and asking who it is when they wander up and check with a list of known members. It's mostly members that go in and out, but there are a few incidents that occur every now and again. This time, I had the burden of dealing with the local media. It's strange, they're all over the story about how Nightfire managed to escape the prison and cause so many deaths, though the number kept changing between each tabloid, none seemed to recognize me as part of the group that put them away. They just kept up the incessant nagging of 'Will the guild do anything?' or 'Is there a manhunt going on for Nightfire?' or even stupid ones asking where Nightfire were located.

Unfortunately, the guild has a deal with a couple of papers, and I have to let those ones in, after calling up an escort to make sure they don't stray from the path, as such. Otherwise, the other people I will let the gates open for are prospective members, and I walk them down to Mirror, a Mr. Mime, who handles all applicants. He's a little odd and ends up creeping out some, but I suppose you aren't that committed if you leave because the guy you meet is a little quirky. He's fine, really, once you get to know him.

I suppose that's the downside of having the guild. Everyone goes soft, reliant on help from others, reliant on help from the guild. Lost an item? Get the guild. A friend went exploring and hasn't returned? Call the guild. 90% of the time, it's a faux pas, the item was actually at their home all along, or the friend got knocked out and found him or herself outside the dungeon, as usual. It's the 10% that we need to accommodate though.

After a whole day of gatekeeping, with the brilliant red sun setting right into my eyes, I see Team Knights approach. Or at least their silhouettes. As Rolf approached the gate, I open it up for them, jumping down from my post to talk.

"Rolf. I've got some news," I mention "Ariel left a note for me, asking to meet me tonight"

He chuckled slightly, before realizing I was serious. "Don't you think that's going to be a trap, Blitz?" He questioned. "She has no motive to meet with you as a friend, or even a negotiator. You know full well Nightfire are out to kill you, this is only another chance they have at doing exactly that."

"Well...that's the thing. I don't think it is. I don't think Nightfire would risk being here while the whole place is on high alert, just for a battle by the cliff," I shook my head. "It's not too far from the town. But I do know about the danger, which is why I need your help. Could you and Arthur keep overwatch on me, in case anything does happen?" I ask, looking to each individually as I mention them, pleading.

"What about me?" Alex chirps, almost innocently. He may be a really nice guy, but he's not always on the ball. Thankfully, I had Arthur to be able to explain the concept to him.

"Well, you're a big Feraligatr. Hiding isn't going to be easy for you, where as I can hide in any trees or bushes, and Rolf is fairly small and largely black colored. I think if we do agree, you'd have to sit this out," He noted to Alex, before turning to me, before even consulting Rolf. "As I can see you will be going whether we accompany you or not, we'll help. But this is a bad idea, and you know it. In the cover of darkness, they could attack you quite easily." He said, speaking in a calm, rational tone. I saw Rolf nodding, agreeing with Arthur's reasoning.

"Thank you, thank you very much" I smile, moving out of the way of them, so they could pass through the gates. "I'll meet you out here at 11. We can talk about it then" I call out to them as they head inside, and as I close the gates. Thankfully I knew a way out without having to open the gates. I know Arthur won't be too happy about it, but nobody else knew about it. Or at least I didn't think so. It only just occurred to me with that thought that Ariel would have had to sneak in to get to my room. I shivered, the idea of her being there terrified me. She could have done anything, lay in wait, poison something, look through my information; although she probably did do that last one. But no, she left a note. While I didn't like that she was in my room, it also helps my belief that all she wanted was actually a talk.

Based on an earlier recommendation, I decided to check out the jail for myself, to see what happened. I headed back into town, with the sun already set, the street lamps paved the way along the town. As I made it to the prison, there was already yellow tape up around the area. I walked up to the line, seeing nobody there, even after calling, getting no response, so I headed in. I noticed that all the cells were empty; probably because they were transferring the prisoners. They had already cleaned up the bodies, but there was white tape on the floor. Near the entrance to the cells where a larger area marked out, but the white tape seemed to stretch on as if parts had flown off the victim under the force of the attack. I concluded Magnezone had been found here, and I'd heard he was in an electronic coma. Or in other words, his energy cells and chips were removed after the fight, the work of someone who knew the anatomy of robotic Pokémon. I walked up towards where Ariel was held, seeing several bits of tape further on past her cell, but only 2 marking the outside of Night's cell, of which the bars were mangled and bent, ripped from the floor and ceiling. The fact that the bars bent inwards meant that Night was released by someone else. And just by looking at Ariel's cell, you could tell it was her. The bars were bent sideways, with a clear gap I could walk through into her cell. I noticed there was some blood on the bar where it was bent the most, and also on part of the chains, which had come out of the wall. She used her strength to force her and her team's way out of the cell completely, and upon that realization, I noticed I was gawking at the wall where she had been tied up against. It seemed almost impossible, but here was the proof in front of me. I sighed, appalled at the loss of life here. It was hard to kill a robotic Pokémon, as a lot of them could be repaired. So they must have been well and truly unrecognizable to be claimed dead.

I left the jail, my heart sodden and my soul empty. It was despicable and heartless what had happened in there, and it was all Ariel's doing. It showed just how potent, heartless, and malevolent she really was. And how I could be expecting exactly the same when I meet her tonight. It was a long walk back, and I didn't look up once. As I entered the guild, I saw Rolf and Arthur emerging, nodding to me to acknowledge me, as I turned left, walking around the side of the guild. Now the guild had high walls surrounding most places you could get in. Except for the part where the wall meets the ocean, there's a vine growing up the wall, where you can get over, and while you will hang over quite a drop into the sea, if you shimmy across, you will land on a platform of grass. Rolf followed without hesitation, but Arthur was reluctant, reaching the top of the wall and shaking his head. It took a few attempts of Rolf persuading him before Arthur joined us, leaping down very shakily, but otherwise Ok.

"I don't like water, okay?" He justified, moving on ahead, as Rolf chuckled slightly, following him. When we were 5 minutes away from the cliff edge, Rolf and Arthur both went different directions, using the shadows to move towards the cliff, allowing me to walk the rest on my own. As I approached the cliff, I could not see any figures. I stood in the small clearing, looking around me for Ariel, Night, or Ghost. I couldn't even see Rolf or Arthur. I went to the cliff edge, gazing over the ocean, the rolling waves crashing against the side of the cliff face down below, the sound faint from the height I was at. You could just make out the white foam at the break of the wave, as it glinted in the moonlight. I was distracted, but not enough to hear the noise behind me, the sound of a hollow hard object striking another. I jumped up from the cliff edge, trying to identify the source, seeing Arthur fall from the tree to my right, and saw Rolf thrown out from behind a rock, in the direction the noise had been from, Ariel walking over and picking him up, slamming him against the floor a few times as he struggled underneath her. I ran over to tackle her, but I lost my footing, watching helplessly as Ariel's eyes glowed a bright pink, lifting me up in the air by my legs. Rolf had stopped struggling now, blood spreading out on the ground underneath him, I could only tell from the glint it gave off. Ariel turned towards me, eyes still pink, just faded now, obviously using no effort to hold me up.

I gulped, thinking she was coming for me next. She came within a foot of me, looking straight into my eyes, as she had before, dropping me onto the floor, but I managed to catch myself with my hands, flipping backward, arms raised, ready for battle. She giggled, almost girlishly, walking towards me still.

"You're an idiot. You should have just met me alone here. I really just want to talk" She said, walking past me, and sitting next to where I had been at the cliff's edge. She patted the ground to the side of her, without looking backward. I felt entranced, and I obliged, sitting next to her.

"How obedient," she commented, smiling slightly at the control she had. "Don't worry, they'll be fine. Rolf will need a little medical help, but not much," She comforted, putting my mind slightly at ease. "Come here same time tomorrow, minus the cronies".

I don't know how she knew where they were, as we split up long enough ago for them to approach silently individually.

"Blitz. You asked me a question earlier." She stated. I was puzzled at first, but I remembered what she was talking about. I just assumed it was the second of the two I asked.

"Yeah. Then you electrocuted me. I remember" I reminded her, giving her a slight glare. Her glance back at me disarmed me of this, as I looked away to avoid her gaze.

"Ha! That was funny!" she laughed again, tipping backward slightly. "Well, I didn't know how to answer it then. But, I think I have an answer for you now." She smiled, turning her body towards me. I looked back, holding her gaze this time, anticipating the worst. The smile was very unnerving, I hadn't pictured Ariel to be a socially functioning Pokémon, I imagined more a death-obsessed fanatic, not a composed, alluring person. It seemed so innocent as if she hadn't committed the atrocities I witnessed as if she wasn't the most wanted Pokémon in the area.

"What is it then?" I say, almost impatiently, I felt as if she was going to react badly, as she moved towards me. I closed my eyes as a reflex, waiting to be attacked. But instead, I felt the soft caress of her lips on my cheek, ever so gentle, as to barely leave an impression, but at the same to powerful enough to leave me wanting more, the sensation of her lips touching my cheek staying there, tingling, and I felt my heart skip a beat, just with the excitement of a mere kiss. I opened my eyes, turning to her, except she wasn't there. She was gone. I held my hand to my cheek gently rubbing against where she had kissed, to reassure myself it was real. I don't know why, but just the idea of Ariel kissing me electrified me, leaving me wanting more, wanting her. I sat there, staring at where she had been, trying desperately to remember the moment, what made it feel so good...why she had done it. If it was what I thought it was, then I'm not sure if that was for the best or the worst. All I know is it kept me alive earlier, I was sure of that now.

I looked towards Rolf and Arthur, moaning coming from the direction of the Sceptile, as he groggily got up. He caught sight of me sitting on the edge of the cliff, looking at him. His expression turned from a tired one to alert, as he scanned immediately for Rolf, running over to aid him. "Rolf! Rolf!" He yelled, cradling the Lucario's head. I got up slowly, walking over to them, and kneeling by Rolf.

"He'll be fine" I informed him, possibly sounding too removed from the situation, judging by his reaction of horror.

"He'll be fine?! What do you mean? His head is all bloodied!" He yelled at me, removing his hands to show the blood on his palms.

I nod twice, breathing in and out, before telling him the news. "Ariel arrived. She found both you and Rolf, before coming to me. She said he will be fine, and I believe her," I pause trying to think of what to tell him next. "She spoke to me fleetingly, just saying you and Rolf would be fine, before taking off. She obviously didn't like that you were here." I told him. Technically, I didn't lie, she did say that. I just don't think I should tell them about afterward.

Carrying Rolf between us, Arthur and I headed back for the guild, as the early hours of the morning started to arrive, bandying no words between us, just the sincere silence of failure.


	5. Chapter 5 - Change in plans (Ariel)

_Author's note: Sorry for the wait, I've been really hesitant about posting this, and I've lost a lot of interest due to other business. But I'll post this one. Not sure when next chapter will arrive._

 _I indicated in the first chapter I will include some smut, which will come in later in this chapter. I believe users on this site call it lemon? Idk, anyway, I've made a short title on it, so you can skip past it if you need. Any advice/criticism will be greatly appreciated on it._

 ** _Lemons included_**

I waited in the crevice of the cave situated underneath the cliff, and I listened to Blitz blatantly lie to Arthur. I felt a little pang of guilt about doing that to Rolf, but I needed him unconscious, and he just stayed awake. After I heard them leave, I re-emerged from the cave though a little staircase that led up to a bush, which is how I got in behind Blitz in the first place. I made my way through the outskirts of the town, as I would be recognized very easily going straight through it. Tends to happen when you are a light blue color with a nice scratch on your eye.

I needed to stay around for another night, and I'm sure Blitz would come alone this time. And I knew just how to waste the time. You see, there are three members of Nightfire known to the guild. Keyword; 'known'. Nightfire actually exists in a much larger group, recruiting the toughest criminals to the ranks, and even managing to indoctrinate guild members, or get one of ours undercover within the guild. Overall, Nightfire consisted of about 300 members, all of which had their own use. While Night, Ghost and I drew most of the attention, criminals would work in small groups to pose a menace, while appearing to be separate, and are all coordinated by Night. We have informants in the guild, 2 to be exact. 1 was in the upper echelon in the guild, which is why we're able to evade capture for so long. It's funny how well money can motivate a member so high up in the guild's ranks, with an almost impeccable record. That and a reminder that if he feeds us wrong info, we would 'dismiss' him from our services.

I decided I would pay Rolf I little visit, after the head injury, I thought it only suitable to send my condolences in person. Infiltrating into the guild is risky, but I had already done it before. Getting up to Blitz' room was quite hard, but it does help being able to move things around me. I used the same technique as last time, walking around to the side, opening up the bricks in the wall in front of me, laying them back in exactly the same way behind. There was an iron grating, which they used to use as the sentry post, underground, to look up at footprints. The Pokemon who was supposed to rid of it just chucked it around the corner. Thankfully. So, standing on this grate, I again used psychic to levitate the grate up the side of the building, until I got to a window. This was Blitz' room, but Rolf's was right next to it. Just opposite the corridor. I peeked in, seeing nothing, and then climbed in, landing softly on the ground, barely making any noise. Unfortunately, my timing could not be worse. As soon as I got in, I heard the door knob turning, as someone tried to get in. I dived underneath the bed, rolling out of sight. There was barely enough space for me, my head was almost touching the mattress from underneath. Staying a silent as I could, I heard the Pokemon enter. A slight 'roaring' effect from the flame on Blitz' head meant as soon as he stopped moving, I could identify it was him due to the noise. I cursed myself for being so reckless, under my breath, but I'd just have to wait for my opportunity. Trying to locate him, I tried to follow his flame around the room, until the mattress sagged down, and pressed down gently against my head. Great, I'd have to wait for him to get to sleep, so I could make my move.

It took a while, but he nodded off eventually, noticeable only by his change in breathing. I slid out from underneath the bed, and couldn't help but stare at him while he slept. He looked so inviting. An easy target who is actively working against Nightfire, for now anyway. Usually, I would just kill him, but I had just about enough self-restraint to turn away. I made my way to the door, listening for anyone else. Chatter, footsteps, anything that would indicate someone in the corridor. But I heard nothing. Quickly opening the door, I dashed down the corridor to the room on my 4th left: Rolf's room. I opened the door to this one slowly, quietly, not knowing if he was awake or not yet. Peering in, I noticed he was sat at his desk, writing something, wearing a silk bandage across his forehead, pushing down one of his ears. I closed the door silently behind me, knowing that it wouldn't be long before he could identify me just by my aura, an unfortunate ability Lucarios have. Now, while I knew that I _liked_ Blitz, I still couldn't place what I felt about Rolf. A same sort of feeling...but more of a lust. A hunger. A desire. Maybe it was because I read too much into their bios given to me by our informant, but I had to admire their dedication, and personalities. Blitz captured me in the heat of battle, which is why I chose not to rid of him. Rolf...I think I've liked for a while. It certainly wasn't the first time we met, and I didn't want it to be the last.

Sure enough, as I predicted, Rolf's available ear pricked, his head alert. I thought the best action at this point was to prepare for him calling out. But I didn't want to surprise him, so I stood upright at his door, waiting for him to notice me. Sure enough, he turned around, his eyes widened, and he opened his jaw to call out. I moved fast, getting behind him and dragging him out of his chair, hand over his mouth, and pushed him onto the floor, on his back, making sure not to hit his head again, and restraining him by jumping on top of his torso and arms.

"Rolf, I just want to talk to you" I assured calmly, but he kept yelling, though muffled by my hand, and I had to shut him up. I slapped him hard across the face with my free hand, which only caused him to yell and struggle more. I continued to try and hold him down as he thrashed his legs behind me, trying to kick me in the back. I tried reasoning with him again to get him to calm down.

"I would hate to have to knock you out again, please let me talk." I reasoned quietly, but he continued to try and over power me, and it was getting more and more difficult.

 ** _~ Lemon ~_**

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Or I'll kill you here!" I hissed, keeping my voice down, and slapped him again, hard, immediately leaving a dark red mark on the golden part of his cheek, which seemed to make him finally decided to be quiet. "For fuck's sake, that's what it took?" I sighed, slowly removing my hand from his mouth, waiting to see if he would make any noise again, before continuing. "Okay, listen, I want to talk to you about what happened last night, with you, Blitz, and Arthur..." I started to talk about why I was up here when I noticed something brush up against my dress, and poke me gently on the backside. I turned around quickly, stopping my train of thought, to see what was touching me, and then turning back round to face Rolf immediately, who's shade of red was an even deeper hue than the new mark on his cheek. This must be why he went quiet, he didn't want to be seen.

"Are you serious?" I asked, slightly in disbelief. I suppose it was slightly flattering, in one way.

"I-I-I'm sorry, i-i-i-it just sorta happened! " he stuttered defiantly, defending himself quietly, obviously not wanting to be caught in this compromising position. "I dunno what happened, I mean you just came in here and jump on me, it happens!" He kept trying, blushing harder by the second. I leaned in to whisper into his ear, one of my hands tracing down a line from his chin to his chest as I did so.

"You know, I didn't mean to hurt you last night. I came round to apologise, but I suppose I can make it up to you in...some other way" I whispered, a slight drag to my voice, perfectly timing my finger tracing his chest to reach the spike, swirling the top of it with my finger tip at the same time as finishing my sentence, his flustered face and large gulp testament to the fact that what I was doing was working. That and feeling of another throb touching my butt. "Can I take that as a yes?" I asked, sarcastically. Rolf neither shook nor nodded his head to my rhetorical question, just wearing a look somewhere between embarrassment, fear, with a hint of pleasure. The amount of control I had over him so quickly turned me on slightly, and the very slight whimpers Rolf began to give out only helped more. Rolf's breathing began to change very slightly, with shorter and more shallow breaths. In a swift action, I swivelled, to face his member, still teasing his spike with my hand, tracing my finger in circles around the base, going up to reach the tip, and then returning to the base with my palm. I took the opportunity to look at his package before I did anything else. He was quite sizeable, it was _definitely_ over 6 inches long, but I wouldn't give him the satisfaction that I was a bit impressed.

"This is all I have to work with?" I asked, sounding as annoyed as I could. I could hear Rolf quietly start to dispute it, but I quickly silenced him by leaning down towards his penis and inserting just the end into my mouth. I heard Rolf behind me exhale gradually, sharply taking in another breath as I slowly kept going down, pushing my tongue to the bottom of my mouth to make room, feeling it hit the back of my throat. I spent a moment flicking my tongue around his shaft my mouth, but I still kept going down, suppressing my reflex, until my mouth enveloped his entire member. I could hear him repeat several obscenities under his breath behind me as his cock throbbed in my mouth again, as I moved my tongue along his base, in slow movements, before releasing his member, keeping my mouth tight, still running my finger along his spike the whole time, my other hand brushing through the fur on his chest.

I repeated the process, swallowing him whole, but faster this time, accompanied by Rolf's moan as his paws reached up, parting my dress, which tingled where the dress brushed my legs as he gently caressed the outside of my thighs, slowly moving inward. I could feel his blunted claws gently skim across my thighs, tickling me, and bringing a new pleasure with it. With his body responding to me well, I continued, doing the same process again and again. He started thrusting very slightly in time with me, helping me take in his whole member each time. I started to speed up more, his thrusting more exaggerated now, catching up to my tempo, and his breathing quickened each time I sped up, his moans more acute, as his searching paws reached towards my pussy, his claws brushing the inside of my thighs, the teasing causing me to tighten my mouth while I was bobbing up and down on his dick, beginning to get a sweet taste in my mouth, the taste a little stronger every time. Rolf started moaning underneath me, obviously trying to keep his volume down to avoid attention. I could feel my body reacting to the situation as well, even without Rolf's actual input on anything, I could feel myself getting wet. But I wasn't going to let him try and one up me, that wouldn't be fun now would it.

I released his spike with my hand and placed both hands on the cold stone floor, lifting my legs, which were either side of Rolf's chest, and pushing his arms back down to the floor, away from my wetness. "Stay...dog" I teased, turning my head a quarter turn to glance at Rolf, who had his jaw open, his eyes almost pleading for more, or maybe that was my imagination. I gave a half smirk in his direction, before returning to the task at hand, going down on him with renewed speed, renewed vigour, placing my hands on his hips to hold him down, even though I could feel him start to buck underneath me again. The only noises I could hear was his moans, as they became slightly louder, more elongated as I went up and down his shaft, his breathing through his moans heavy, and a _'shlick'_ noise each time I came up from his cock. I could feel his chest underneath me going up and down, his jagged breaths matching the movement. I felt that he was getting close, and didn't plan on letting him have all the fun. I paused, giving my lips a rest, as my hand took over, stroking over his head with a tight grip, looking back to see that Rolf had his head tilted back, his eyes closed, a brilliant red splaying across his face, trying to hold on as long as possible, my body held him down, preventing his back from arching upwards in pleasure. I didn't want it to be over that quickly. I stopped, teasing him by resting at his tip for a second, before turning myself to face him. " Ok, I've done you a favour..." I purred, returning my hand back to his spike, stroking it up and down gently.

"But.." He interrupted, but stopped, when I shot a stern look in his direction. I stood up, leaving him on the floor, as I walked slowly around, silent, from his side, to stand above his head. He was still breathing heavily, his eyes tracing me as I moved, his cock throbbing, begging for release.

"Now it's time for you to do a favour for me. And remember to be a bit quieter this time" I cooed, pulling a sort of half-smile, as I lifted my dress over his face, and lowering myself gently down as well, onto my knees. He didn't spend long staring, and quickly began to lick around the edge of my pussy, trying to tease me himself, but he couldn't resist. Jolts shot up my body, giving me quivers of bliss as his searching tongue passed over my clitoris, and into my opening. His tongue lapped at my entrance, grazing both the inside and outside in one move, and I had to stop myself drooling with the sensation of pleasure he was delivering. I had not felt this in a long time, and it's only now I realised how much I had missed this feeling, how much I needed it. I relaxed my body, enjoying every moment of his services, his penis still standing alert, as his tongue found its way deeper, going further than I thought he could have gone. Each flick of his tongue sent a scorching wave of fire through my body, and I couldn't help but react. I could hear myself letting out low, quiet moans of my pleasure, as my hand reactively reached to my stomach, and my other hand to the side of Rolf's neck, clasping at his fur, and I grinded myself slowly against Rolf's muzzle as he continued. And when I thought my little present was good enough, he began to include my button in his routine, changing his attention often. Each time he licked my clit, I felt shudders go down through my body, I felt my own breath begin to catch in my throat, having to swallow to recompose myself. I didn't want his getting the upper hand now, so I decided it was time for a change. I held him down again as I moved further down his body, turning around again to face him.

"Not bad Rolf," I commented. "But not good enough to outlast me" I offered the challenge, winking at him.

Positioning his tip at my slit, I slammed down into him, my body constricting against his cock momentarily, relaxing again, while I watched as his tongue rolled out of the side of his mouth, his eyes closed, his body shaking as he recovered. He reached out to find my waist, encouraging to me move up and down, coming down on his cock each time, with a high speed, and each time feeling his cock pulse in response. Small slapping noises emanated from our actions, only making me hotter for him, as I kept any moans of mine inside, biting my lip to keep me from giving in to the luscious feeling of him inside me, while he was openly showing his pleasure, almost drooling onto his floor, grunting each time I came down on him, thrusting back up as I released him. My dress largely concealed his member, but I could see his muscles tensing, 4 of his abs brilliantly visible in front of me, and the outlines of arms were rigid and stiff.

"Fuck...Ariel...Don't...stop..." Rolf begged, in needy whispers. I could feel my carnal cravings being filled, watching him writhe at my hands, but I needed to keep control. I ripped his paws from my waist, leaning forward and restraining his arms above his, pinning them against the floor, and using my legs to keep up a high tempo and high power, which both he and I could not resist much longer. His face went a whole shade darker from the move, letting out exasperated moans as he looked desperately into my eyes, his breath tickling my face. I could feel him struggling, his visibly dampened fur testament to my effect on him. This new angle I was riding him at was hitting just the right spot for me, and the great view I had of Rolf on his back, being completely dominated, his glistening golden fur, the heavy blush he was wearing, it was all getting too much. I only prayed that he would let go first. I began to work faster, my thighs aching, yet unyielding. Rolf was squirming under me, I knew he was clinging on by a thread. With three louder exclamations from the Lucario, I felt Rolf come inside me, as his fists tightened and he bared his teeth, his arms pushing back against me, to no avail, as his warm seed shot into me, hitting me with a new high. But, I wasn't finished and continued to keep up the pressure. Rolf began to make audible yips, with a slight look of discomfort washing over his face, as I continued. I released his left arm, clasping his neck with my hand as I leant forward, towards his ear, slowing down very slightly. "Quiet, pup," I breathed into his ear. "I'm not finished with you yet." I gave his ear a nip with my teeth, nothing that would leave any mark, leaving me with a slightly salty taste in my mouth of his sweat. I was too close now though, with Rolf practically begging for mercy under me, I couldn't hold on. I melted as my body constricted itself, the feeling of bliss overtaking me. My eyes were closed, yet all I saw was white, as I felt all breath leave my lungs, I slowed down gradually, to a halt. I could hear him growling in satisfaction, his eyes closed and his body relaxed and unresisting. I was panting, much faster than he was, as I slowly lifted myself off. I looked down at him, he looked so cute so worn out, so used.

 _ **~~lemon end~~**_

Before he had a chance to speak about it, I grabbed a tuft of his chest hair, pulling him up into a sitting position, tilting my head to the left, and forcefully pressed my lips against his. He returned the kiss immediately, his lips trying to overpower mine, unsuccessfully. He let out a slight, quiet yelp of surprise, as I parted his mouth with mine, slipping my tongue inside and felt his wide, flat tongue fight back, wrestling me back into my own mouth. I pushed Rolf back down onto the floor, falling on top of him and beating back his defence, both of my hands holding his checks, as I explored his mouth with my tongue, tasting him, getting a slight fruity hint, and he did nothing to resist. I pulled away from the kiss, breathing heavily onto his face, his breath warming my neck. He lay completely still as I stood up, leaving him on the floor, and I crouched by his head.

"We're even for your head injury. Actually, I think you probably owe me one for that. As you can see...I'm on your side. Slightly" I whisper into his ear, my warm breath bouncing back onto my face before I stood up and headed for the door.

"Wait," I hear his voice escape between his breaths, his head tilted towards me. "What does that mean?"

I giggled my girlish laugh, my worst quality in my opinion, but it brought a slight smile to his face anyway. "That's for me to know...and you to find out" I responded, opening the door and checking the corridor, which was empty. I glanced back at him, as he was trying to sit up on the floor, before closing the door and heading back to Blitz' room. I was sort of correct about how I felt about Rolf, it was a pure lust. He was so submissive, he felt like modelling clay at my disposal, a toy. And I would love nothing more than to use him. Now at Blitz' room, I peered in, checking that he was still asleep. I slipped in, watching him carefully, as I headed out the window, bringing the grate back up, so I could get down. I needed to clean off quickly.

I quickly washed in the ocean at the beach. Nobody was down there, especially after the fight a couple of nights ago. I washed myself down briefly but decided a trip to the hot springs would be better. It's not the first time Night and Ghost hadn't heard from me in a couple of days, but I'm sure they were wondering where I went, at a time like this. There wasn't a single excuse I could think of at the moment, not that I needed one. Night knew better than to question me, and I don't think Ghost was masochistic enough to try either. Heading quickly through the forested route, I made it to the hot springs in barely any time at all, not meeting any obstructions along the way.

As I approached the springs, the slight whiff of the chemically treated water was caught in the breeze, still warm. In the springs, they had several different pools for different Pokémon, even a lava pool for fire types and dragons, I hear it really does work wonders for them. The springs were managed by an old Torkoal; another Nightfire contact. Our influence really does spread far, giving us little perks wherever we go. I nodded to him as I entered the side pool, without any other Pokémon in, who were too busy in the main pool to pay any attention to me. The hot water was kept at around 45 degrees Celsius, and smelled faintly of lavender, as grass Pokémon were hired to infuse the water with different scents. It was lovely to have the hot water evaporate and wash over your face, allowing you to smell it fairly vividly, and warming your whole body. I felt myself sink into the water, relaxing and closing my eyes.

Maybe I spent too long there, but after my little 'workout', it wasn't a bad thing. I stepped out, taking a moment in the afternoon sun to dry off. Now I had to go back and meet Night and Ghost, at a prearranged location. I don't know how I was going to explain my absence to them, nor did I care. The location was back in the forest, but it would be a slightly longer trek to it from the hot springs. Night intended it to serve as a mini base of operations. Coordination was key and was what made us such a potent gang, all sorted by Night. Having the whole of Nightfire at his disposal now meant he could make any move against the guild to provide enough cover to drop focus on us.

Night always insisted on a contingency plan, in the case one of us ever found themselves in jail. The plan was to create a small outpost at a particular location just inside the woods about a mile away from the guild. As I approached, I could see small, hidden watch towers along the side, camouflaged in the canopy, with ranged attack trained Pokémon manning them. I passed a Floatzel guarding one, who didn't look back at me, as was standard. Entering the small camp past the trees into a clearing, I could already hear Ghost's loud, deep, booming, brazen voice ringing through the trees

"Why isn't she here!" He bellowed. "We were supposed to meet here hours ago!" It was obvious he was talking about me, but I wanted to surprise him a little bit. I ducked off behind the tents, approaching from behind Ghost, as he kept making his unnecessary noise.

"Just because she can break us out of prison doesn't mean she can go off on her own personal business!"

Night shook his head, his razor teeth showing as he chuckled at Ghost. "Actually, she can. Or at least, I'm not going to stop her."

"WHAT! Why can't I?" He complained. I chose this moment to intervene, sneaking up behind him.

"Two reasons," I started, speaking very close behind him, watching him jump backward, growling, and turning to face me, as I glowered at him slightly. "First. You're not discrete. You are a huge mass of fat that is easily noticeable from a mile away, and you're too fucking reckless to get out of a bad situation." He scowled at me for my comment, but I continued anyway.  
"Secondly, you're so weak you lost against a girl" I stated, Night broke out laughing, hiding behind his wing as he turned away. Ghost approached me, a death stare in his eyes, which I easily matched. After the shortest of staring contests, he huffed, turning away and strolling to the outside of the camp, though not leaving it, as I went to talk to Night.

"Don't wind him up too much, we need him tomorrow" Night mentioned, as I approached. When I was recruited, and requesting transferral up to the face of Nightfire, Ghost laughed and mocked me, saying how weak a girl was, and told me I could enter if I beat him. It took about a minute, and Night immediately replaced Ghost with me. Ghost never liked me since then, but I think he's coming around a little.

"I'm thinking that we target Arthur first" Night explained. "He is the leader of Team Knights, and would set a good example to the others, should we rid of him." I didn't realize the plan was going to start so soon. Well, Nightfire needed to keep itself a bit more secretive...and to help lose the trail, they would get rid of anybody trying to chase them. This would include Team Knights and Blitz, and Torch.

"So, the plan was to get Ghost go into the guild, smashing through a wall to get a Pokémon in their room and abduct them. Then just leave the remains in a convenient place the day after." Night explained. Except with half the chance, they would take Blitz or Rolf next. I needed a way to alter that. I felt like I was betraying myself, going against every instinct I had, by trying to persuade Night to do something else.

"I was thinking...It's a bit useless just going after one of the members, I mean they'll all come and hunt us down with more vigor. Maybe if they had a friend, and we lured them into a trap...I mean they'd see it coming, but they'd have no other choice, in order to rescue their friend." I proposed. I watched as Night processed it, I could imagine the finely tuned cogs spinning in his brain, picturing the pros and cons of every scenario and weighing them up.

"It would give us the home advantage..." He noted audibly, looking around. "We have enough Pokémon here to attack any search party they send, and we can handle Knights and Blitz when they turn up" He nodded, turning to me again. "I like your thinking. We'll do that then, as long as you have a target in mind" He agreed. His slight smile removed itself when he realized I didn't have a name. "Ariel..." He shook his head.

"I'll get you a name. Don't worry. I need to make sure they're the right person, first." I reassure. I look back towards Ghost, still sulking, smashing trees with his body occasionally, though none falling down. They were tall Oaks, easy to hide in amongst. Not easy to knock over. "I'll head off now, and meet you here tomorrow morning. With a name" I repeated, not looking back towards Night, but I heard him turn and walk away. Heading back out of camp, I made my way towards the town again, back towards the cliff edge.

I had a hard decision to make. I was torn between two different parts of me. My brain demanded I follow through with the original plan with Nightfire; I had made a nice living there, and it wasn't worth changing, risking, or giving up. Yet my heart begged me to spare Blitz, spare Rolf. It even tried to ask me to spare the rest of Team Knights. The nerve. It was an odd feeling to have, a new one for me anyway. My stomach had butterflies both from the anticipation of tonight, and the feeling of failing Nightfire. Walking along the small, dusty road into Ethos, I made up my mind. Do neither. That way I wouldn't have to choose. I have already suggested something, and I will come back with a name. Just a random one. I wouldn't tell Blitz, or Team Knights, about our plan.

Anyway, I had another meeting to prepare for, this time with Blitz. I was hoping that I could get some cooperation from him. It would be easier if he stopped following Nightfire, but it was so brave that he was trying. I couldn't help but smile as I thought of him. He was so innocent and didn't even know how to deal with my actions last time, and that was just a simple peck on the cheek. I wondered how he would react to me pushing it a little further, several scenarios playing in my head, just widening my smile, as I headed back through the forest, towards our little meeting place.

Oh, tonight was gonna be fun...


	6. Chapter 6 - Second chance (Blitz)

I lay in my bed, having thrown the bed covers off me because it was too hot earlier, except that meant I was too cold now. I didn't want to have to leave, regardless. Apart from the fact I would much rather just get some more sleep, I had a meeting with Ariel to go to, and now this time I was going alone, I was a _bit_ more afraid. She was psychotic, a killer, a criminal, yet she just wanted to talk, as she did last night. It wasn't long until I had to leave, and the closer it got, the more anxious I became. I decided to go over to Rolf's room to have a chat before I left, but I found it to be locked. Which was a little odd, seeing as he'd never done so before, nor most Pokemon here. Not that it mattered; everyone's allowed their own privacy. With the meeting time approaching, I had to leave, walking out of the guild building, going around the same way I did to get out last night.

Arriving at the cliff, I could already see Ariel waiting for me, by a small tree, which almost concealed her completely in the shadows, As I approached, she started to walk out to meet me, arms crossed, the shadow she was wearing undressed as she advanced, revealing her body one bit at a time. First, the dress appeared, which she had cut into several more frills, each one ended in a point at the end, creating a zig zag -ish pattern at the bottom of the dress when she stood still. Proceeding upwards, the dress was attached to her waist, which curved so delicately upwards, meeting her torso, revealing her light orange chest plate, and completing a perfect hourglass figure. The shadow unveiled her face last, her bright blue eyes tainted only by the red scar over her revealed eye, the only mark she ever had a struggle with anyone, half of her face hidden behind her light blue hair, which curved over the right side of her face, concealing her other eye.

I felt an apprehension wash over me, as Ariel paced towards me, each step making no sound, her dress parting at the knee as she walked, revealing her long, slender legs. Just being face to face with Ariel was terrifying, yet given the past circumstances, exhilarating. She emanated a sense of fear around her, and I could feel it working on me. She stood taller than me, which was unusual, Gardevoirs usually being smaller than Infernapes, and so I felt intimidated, almost out matched in every way, just by being in her presence.

"Good evening Blitz. Nice of you to attend without bringing and friends with you, this time" She smirked, her voice carrying almost a melody with it, but in a low timbre, for a Gardevoir. "At least you have a few brains on you."

"Ariel," I started. "You know full well how risky it is for me to come out alone to meet you," I stated, shaking inside, fearing I would mess up a single word and lose any facade of my stability at the moment. She stood perfectly motionless, unblinking, the only movement was her dress in the faint, but chilly breeze.

She paused, hesitating slightly, but I think only of an inability to phrase what she wanted to say. "Well...Where to start is the question then," she nodded. "We both know that I could have killed you in the fight between Nightfire and Knights. You asked me why I didn't finish you. And I didn't exactly finish my answer last night." I nodded in response, fully remembering the activities of last night

"I think, that I like you. I can't explain why at all. I don't know how it works. All I know is that I couldn't bring myself to kill you." She sighed, closing her eyes and crossing her arms.

The mood was very strange with this admission; it was almost like she was telling me her weakness. Well, she was, but beside the point, she just passed the bomb to me. It's figuratively out of her hands now, and into mine. I won't deny that she's stunning, and when she kissed me, albeit on the cheek last night, it felt electric, to the point where my cheek was tingling for another 10 minutes after the fact. But it was insane to think that I didn't have any reservations to her statement, I don't know what she was expecting me to respond with, because there was no chance in hell that I would ever return those feelings, to a murderer, a thief. To her. Even without this, I had someone else on my mind. But this is an advantage which I could exploit...with the risk that she'll kill me if she realizes. If I proclaimed that I liked her back, if it was ever found out I would be jailed. Or worse. Or the other way around and she tries to kill me. She's a psycho; so that extreme reaction does sound fairly likely. But she would surely know that I can't answer that. That's right, she does know that.

"That's not the just the reason you're here" I answered, gleaming inwardly that I figured her out. Her response was to giggle fairly girlishly at this, before recomposing herself.

"Correct you are. Team Nightfire wants to kill you. And I don't want to kill you. As you can see, this leads to a conflict of interest. So, I want to give you enough information to keep you alive. But not enough to let Night and Ghost realize I'm helping you. So, if we meet up like this every two nights, starting tomorrow night, I can help you." She explained. She spoke quickly, yet her melodious voice left nothing unheard.

I spoke in reaction before I thought properly about this. "What about Team Knights, and my Team?" I asked immediately. Her eyes softened slightly when she heard this, before sighing.

"I have no investment in them. They are but collateral to any information I give you," She replied. "But, in return, you must do something for me"

Ah, the catch. Always loved these. Knowing Ariel this was going to be something really stupid and insane, such as lure Arthur into the open so we can kill him. With no attachment to Knights, Ariel would have no qualms about killing him or his team.

"I just want you to kiss me" She smiled, almost innocently, girlishly. The dazzling blue eyes that shone from the side of her fringe beckoned to me. But I couldn't do that. Not to Rose. But...if it was for all of our own good...

"I-I'll think about it." I stuttered, unsure of how to react to her request. Or how she'd react to me. The corners of her mouth returned to their normal positions, her body seeming to deflate slightly.

"Okay...fair enough. Team Nightfire is planning something tonight. I don't know exactly what it is. But, just be on your guard." She said, moving closer towards me still, emphasizing that she was taller than me. She leaned in until her eyes were level with mine, her hair almost brushing my nose. "Because I'm fairly sure they will stop at nothing until you're all dead"

You could cut the tension in the air with a knife, as I tried to absorb what she just told me. Ariel turned and walked away, looking back, a slight smirk returning to her face, before she just, or to the best of my description, disappeared. I sat down on the cliff edge on my own; trying to grasp the concept of the situation I was in yet again. How the hell does a hardened criminal show such a weakness just like that? I suppose no-one ever understands love, but I still failed to comprehend how these events ever unfurled as they have. Having a Team Nightfire member on our side was beneficial to everyone...so I feel like it would be worth playing along in Ariel's game, for the sake of everyone involved. But I couldn't mention it to anyone, or else they would doubt my loyalty and their own safety. I decided to sleep on it, and consider the decision when I was less tired.

Heading back to the guild, I climbed back over the wall and in, heading up to my room, but checking Rolf's room again first. I expected the door to be locked, but it swung open when I pushed it, and Rolf was still awake on the other side, sat on his bed

"Hey, Rolf. Are you alright?" I greeted nonchalantly, expecting his usual reply.

"Not bad, you?" He asked, nodding vaguely along, as he offered an open palm to a seat at his desk, which I gratefully sat down on.

"Been better. Still recovering from the loss of Shaolan, I suppose" I lied. Well not fully, it was true. Just other things were on my mind too. The problem was Rolf can usually tell if I'm fibbing cause of my aura. Unless he wasn't bothering with it tonight.

"Such a waste of talent," He shook his head, looking at the floor. "What do you think you're gonna do with your team?" He asked, turning his gaze to me. My eyes met his, and my look, which could explain my thoughts a lot better than my mouth could do, was received by Rolf, as he held his breath in response. "Blitz," He mumbled. "You can't just give up on your team. Start up. Build up again."

I snorted at the mere suggestion. "Can't. Wouldn't be the same."

"No, but it would be pretty damn close. There must be somebody close to you that could settle in?" He mentioned, one of his ears pricking, while the other stayed floppy, as he tilted his head slightly. My mind immediately raced to Rose, and I could tell Rolf noticed this easily. "Who?" he asked.

"I was thinking...Maybe Rose?" I suggested, looking away from Rolf as a slight flush of red came to my face after remembering Rose's offer. Strange, I hadn't thought about it before, but it was a little odd that I had two Gardevoir after me. I remembered the black flowers she had given me, still standing strong on my desk in my room, with enough sunlight falling on them. Somehow. I've never been good at looking after flowers; they always wilt after a couple of days. But it warmed my heart that these ones were lasting a little longer.

"That Gardevoir that visited you in the hospital? She seems nice, but is she an adventurer like you?" He questioned. I thought to retort quickly to this and dismiss it, except he was correct. I had no idea what she was like in a fight, or whether she had any interest in being in my group. I sighed outwardly, admitting defeat to Rolf. "I think you should talk to Torch about it tomorrow. Her condition is stabilizing rapidly, so she should be back in action soon." He smiled, trying to change the subject; I could tell he was trying to cheer me up. And it did work as well. "And if you can't find anyone, honestly, I think you may be able to tag alongside us. Wouldn't hurt at all." He grinned from one ear to the other, an almost childish expression on his face. I think maybe he would like that to happen, but I could only feel that both I and Torch would end up being a burden on their team.

"Thank you, Rolf, I may take you up on the offer later. But, I think I'll try and see what Torch wants first" I smile, nodding. She was still in the hospital with her injuries, but she should be healed up enough to take some time out of the bed. On normal circumstances, I would be helping rehabilitate her, but when you have Nightfire breathing down your back, it's a little hard to not be on full attention to the situation. The thought crossed my mind, about what Ariel said. That something was going to happen tonight, and to watch myself. Staying out of my room would be a good choice. But I have a feeling that it isn't an attack on me, or she would have said something else. So staying with a member of Team Knights helps this. But I couldn't risk telling Rolf that I knew something was happening tonight. He's getting suspicious. He knows that Ariel was trying to meet up with me, but he had no idea that I was going to meet up with her last night. As far as he was aware, thanks to the prior night's botched attempt, that the talks were over.

"What's your plan? I mean for the whole of this," I started, trying to keep Rolf from trying to gauge my aura. "You know Nightfire is after us. Previous teams have just disappeared over night before. What stops this from happening to us?" I question. Rolf looked down at the floor for a while, his brow furrowed.

"To be honest, that's not really my decision. Other than hiding my entire team, which I will not do, I don't think there's anywhere safer than in the guild. Nightfire could find us if we went somewhere else anyway, and if we retreat, what example are we showing to other teams? We beat them once before, we can do it again. But better, this time." He gradually got louder, obviously getting impassioned by what he was saying. I smiled at him, and he returned the favor.

"I like that plan. We should probably stick together a bit more, for the time being then. Nightfire may leave us alone if we prove too difficult to defeat!" I felt myself get a bit louder as well. _If we could get some help from other teams, Nightfire could go down again. And we can escort them to a maximum security prison ourselves, so I didn't have to bother with Ariel or the others again. If that dream could just come true..._

Rolf cocked his head again. "Blitz, are you okay?" He uttered quietly. I snapped out of my thought, and looked at him, and yawning. I covered my hand with my mouth, but Rolf caught the yawn as well, chuckling afterward. "We both need sleep. Don't worry about Nightfire, just get some sleep. Arceus knows Arthur and Alex are probably both awake anyway." He grinned, lying down in his bed. "I don't know about you, but I'm getting some z's." He proclaimed.

While floors weren't really comfortable, I felt safer here than in my own room. So I got off the chair, pushing it back under the desk and propped myself up against the wall by the door. I needed no time at all to drift off, I felt my eyelids go heavy almost immediately, and my entire body relax.

"Goodnight, Rolf" I whisper quietly, to myself more than anything else, as I dropped off in a matter of seconds.


	7. Chapter 7 - This is War (Ariel)

I passed again through the foliage concealing the clearing, making my way towards the center of the camp. Ghost and Night should be heading off soon, and I've got my name. It's probably just a petty move by me, but I can't just make a _random_ choice. No, there was another Gardevoir at the Guild, named Rose. Thought it would just be a bit of a laugh, I suppose. Or maybe to sate Ghost a little bit, which I'm sure it will. So I believe what will happen, is Night will locate the wall that we need to break through, and Ghost will demolish the wall, and bash the victim around a bit. Then drag her back, where Night will keep her company, as we retreat to an area near the camp. That way, any search party comes down; we have a little help if things get hairy.

As I approached the camp, Night spotted me as I started coming into the clearing. It's impressive, most can't usually identify me when I move through the shadows, let alone see me. I'm mostly silent as I move, so there's only the visual indication of where I am. "Hey, Ariel" He called out, Ghost whipping himself around to face me, not allowing me to sneak up on him a second time. "You got a name for us?" Night asked.

"Yeah. Rose" I reply.

"The other Gardevoir?" Night asked, rhetorically. "Of course. Trust you to be paltry, Ariel. Alright, so we will go on the East entrance...Ariel, can you take out the guard there? And then Ghost can you attack where I point to after that. Should be quick and easy" He nodded.

I couldn't help but admire his memory. He obviously spent time memorizing every single opponent he could possibly come up against in the guild...which would be all of them. And then just based on information given to him by informants, he's been able to make a virtual floor plan in his head. So I put in a name, and then out pops a location. Night was a decent fighter, he had to be to get this far up...but it was his tactical skills and abilities that made him particularly powerful as an opponent. He also had quite the unique ability to control the ground around him. I've seen him turn the ground into dust and then use it to grab enemies, and with a lot of force as well. Or as barriers against attacks he couldn't quite dodge, even as trivial as just blinding the other Pokémon momentarily. I wouldn't dare fight him; I know full well that I would have next to no chance, despite technically being the better fighter.

"Wait..." Interjected Ghost. "How do you know where we're going?" He asked, obviously not having caught up with Night's superior intellect. His voice just made it even more annoying. He _sounded_ stupid. I heard Night inhale, then exhale, slowly, before explaining to Night that he knew where everyone in the Guild slept. A few minutes of more explanation, and Ghost finally understood what we had to do.

Now, I've always thought of him as surplus, but Night keeps Ghost around. He's a very powerful Gyarados, and is capable of tearing anything to shreds if he wanted...but he was so cumbersome, stupid and plain useless in my opinion. Anybody with any sense of tactical battling could get the better of him.

Heading out, Night had a word with the sentries and captains, just so they knew what to do. I did my best to overhear, and it sounded like they would have a few flying Pokémon overhead as we enter the forest, and they can relay positions to us and the rest of the camp. The whole idea was to lure out the guild Pokémon. Not all of them, just enough to take out. I have a feeling that this mission may be a little more than just exacting his revenge on Team Knights and Blitz, but more to do with the entire guild. We were only just out of the forest, and approaching the town, when he spoke more about the plan.

"Okay...we get Rose, quickly, and Ghost...I have a note which you need to leave on her bed. They need to get this..." He held up a small piece of paper. I couldn't quite make out the words on it, in the brief point he held it up, but it looked like it was just a threat. "And either we have a toy to ourselves for the night, or they will make chase. Which means we take our time getting back. Make sure if they are following us, they actually are able to." I checked over to Ghost, who looked a bit puzzled, but thankfully this look didn't remain long. His silvery body reflected the moonlight so well, he illuminated us. Like a flying lamp, with two shadows unyielding from the source. I suppose only helps with the plan in the end.

Heading towards the Guild, Night and Ghost hung back, as I approached the East side of the Guild. Night already pointed out my target to me, a Luxray, and he told me to make it messy, but quiet. My specialty.

As I approached the gate, I waited for the Luxray to notice me, and as soon as he did, I moved. He turned to switch on the alarm, which would wake the entire guild before we even started. But I was there before him, having styled the gate with no effort, I drew my left arm down and back up into his neck, with force, and then hit down on the back of his neck, hard enough for him to hack up blood onto the wooden boxes we were stood on. I hit him with enough force, that when he would inevitably try to call for help, his vocal chords would be so damaged only I would be able to hear his scream. I kicked the dog off the platform onto the floor, jumping down to stand a few meters from him. The frightened Luxray clambered to its paws, and as I predicted, tried to call out for assistance, as I stood watching as all that escaped was a coarse whisper at best. Its eyes widened as I approached again, slowly, waiting for him to make his move. His fur bristled with a yellow current, as a tongue of electricity shot out from his body, enveloping mine. For a moment, I could see a slight smile on his face, then observed it disappear, once he realized the electric shock had no effect on me. I suppose being tortured by the police can help, I barely felt a thing. A warm tingling at best.

In return, I fired a dark pulse at him, while firing a second slightly to the left. Luxrays can see very well with their eyes, so I'm sure he saw both, and dodged to his left, in order to avoid them. Except I used psychic to curve the second dark pulse I fired to my right, which crossed the path of the first, disguising the attack, as it pelted the unguarded Luxray full force, sending the Pokémon flying backwards and hitting the wall with a dull thud, barely audible, and a muffled meow of pain. My tactics scored me a critical hit and probably hit him with enough force to render him unable to defend himself any further. I approached again, and grabbed him by the cuff of his collar, throwing him down into the ground away from the wall, tearing the fur out of his neck as I did so. A slight growl escaped him, but again, inaudible to anyone more than 5 meters away. I grabbed his front paw, jerking it sideway, hard, a faint rip could be heard, following the sight of half of his bone exposed to fresh air. I saw the Luxray try to scream in pain, sounding more like a hiss. He closed his eyes, water forming at the sides of his eyes, dampening the ground beneath him and mixing with the blood spewing from his paw, as I repeated the process to every limb. By the end, his eyes were fully contracted, mostly white, his mouth firmly shut, though leaking blood every time he coughed. It seems he accepted his fate and is now just dealing with the pain.

I took one of the bones sticking out into my hand, and pulled, using psychic to make it a little cleaner, and pulled the bottom half of his paw away from his body, throwing the limb to the side. No change in reaction got me a little worried, and I quickly checked for a pulse. Oh, he was alive alright. He wouldn't last much longer though, so I again followed suit with every leg, quickly, before getting on top of the Luxray's back, wrapping my arms gently around his head. "Shh..." I whispered, and couldn't help but grin as I twisted his neck a full 180 degrees, and it flopped back slightly, looking to be half way between half the way round and a quarter. I got off, licking my finger and just wiping off a spot of blood on my dress that I had unfortunately obtained during the encounter. Night came out of the trees, followed by Ghost. Even Ghost seemed a little shocked, and I couldn't help but remark.

"Ghost...You look positively pale tonight. Is everything okay?" I quipped, getting a nice scowl off of him before he continued. Night pointed at a part of the wall about, I would estimate, 4 stories up, just to the right of a closed window. Except Night needed to fully explain the point several times before Ghost got the correct place. Flying upwards, Ghost didn't hesitate, smashing through the wall, and making a huge noise while doing so, as expected. After a loud roar, several bricks flying out of the broken room, and a few sounds of broken furniture, Ghost reappeared at the hole, dropping an unconscious and battered Gardevoir out of the window. Night caught the body, as Ghost traveled back down.

"Did you leave the note, Ghost?" Night asked. Ghost nodded, just as the alarms went up, red lights flashing at the gate ends, and all up the guild windows, they were all bright red. I looked back up at the hole, and saw a Sceptile peering out of the room, looking down at us.

"Night, it's Arthur" I motioned upwards. Night gazed upwards, eyeing up the Sceptile, who now held the note left by Ghost. I saw Night smirk, before motioning for us to leave, carrying Rose's unconscious body over his shoulders, we made haste to the front of the guild, slowing down as we moved away, waiting to see if anyone would be chasing us. And sure enough, a large crowd of guild members surged out of the building, some exceedingly fast, others slower, but most moving as a group. The fastest ones were starting to catch up, and Night looked back, sighing, throwing Rose to me. I caught, and flung her over my shoulder, as I watched Night vividly. Garchomps are known for their immense speed, and I watched as Night turned around, flying towards the front runners, who were surprised to see the maneuver, as he cut down the front two, blood spewing sideways from the torsos as they collapsed to the ground, not dead, but gravely wounded. Furthermore, he seemed to have angled it perfectly, as the blades formed incisions in the air, much like an Air Cutter attack, which knocked down more Pokémon in their path, sending them tumbling away. They started to keep their distance, as Night back peddled until he caught up with us, turning around again, taking Ariel back off me. We were starting to reach the forest now, and I looked back. There. Alex, Rolf, and Blitz were leading the main group towards the forest. But no sign of Arthur. Shame, because Arthur would have probably been one of the few Pokémon to figure our trap out.

Reaching the forest, we all took slightly separated paths, making sure we could see each other, following Night, but making us a little harder to target, while letting the main group catch up with us more. There must be 400+ Pokémon in the group, which is probably barely a quarter of the guild. All following us because we showed our faces. I was focused on following Night but was interrupted as he called something to me.

"I'm surprised how ready they were. They must have all just woken up, and they were already out the door" He pondered to me. "I might even say they've been waiting for us to attack. Though I just think they were expecting an attack on Team Knights. Maybe you made the right call by making us take Rose." He stated, still speeding onwards, darting between trees, as did I. To my left, Ghost was more just tearing through the trees, making more of a visible path for them to follow.

We made it easily to the clearing, peering at the birds overhead, seemingly innocent yet secretly part of our plan. Two swooped in to inform Night of the situation at camp; that they were ready for the signal, which he would give. He watched the trees, waiting for the silhouettes to come close enough. "Send them over in half a minute. They'll be introduced just after the start of the battle" He proclaimed, standing in the middle of the clearing, and laying Rose down, who was still completely out of it. Her face looked battered, her eye very bruised, and her whole body more of a blue color than green or white. Slowly, sand from the ground covered her body, seeming to solidify, and lifted her up into the air, some still crumbling away, but otherwise, he held Rose high off the ground, seeming to have her in a position in which he could kill her at a moment's notice.

"Nothing fancy, Ariel" He looked over towards me, as small flames bobbed in the forest, making the group's location visible. "Just kill. And don't let them get a touch on you." He reminded.

"What about me?" Ghost protested, not liking that I was being favored over him.

"You're useless. Stay alive" He insulted back at Ghost. You could see the red in his eyes almost flush over his body, in pure anger. The best way to gear Ghost up for a fight is to make him angry, and Night can do it in an instant. Front runners emerged from the trees into the clearing, halting as they saw us, the rest of the group following suit, waiting for a move, watching Rose above them. Alex pushed to the front and started shouting at Night.

"Give us back Rose! She has no part in your quarrel, let the guild Pokémon leave, and leave them alone for good. In their place, you can take me!" He brazenly bellowed. Night just chuckled at the Feraligatr, walking over towards him.

"No. You're not a good enough prize. No deal" He smirked, the sand bubble holding Rose tightening, constricting around her body, fairly obviously. And it didn't take more than half a second for the mob to over surge Alex, even with Blitz and Rolf trying to reach him and try to attack Night. Night propelled himself backward, batting away some ranged attacks in the process, as the group descended on us. Night's smirk never left his face, holding out a claw for us to hold position, as eyes lit up the forest to the left, right and behind us, enough to distract the group attacking us momentarily. Night's claw rushed forwards, as he jumped straight into the group, swirling around and opening his wings, sending Pokémon flying into the air, and let Rose go, her body dropping down rapidly. The Pokémon hiding in the forest jumped out, biting, clawing, burning anyone sent up into the air by Night, and proceeded to surge in on the mob, which was now fully in the clearing, a close quarters battlefield created in an instant. The Nightfire members had all made an N mark in visible places on the bodies, so we didn't attack them. Ghost dove in after Night, thrashing into several Pokémon, some withstanding the hit, others being sent flying backward. I too raced forward, sending my charged hyper beam into the crowd, partially vaporizing the Pokémon closest, and going through to hit others behind them. It was a master piece, the Pokemon that made up the mob were all so shocked to be attacked in the ambush, that we must have demolished over 25 of them before any started even fighting back. Perfect tactics by the man himself. With us in the field, and all Nightfire members involved, about 50, I would guess by the initial attack, each trained to kill several Pokémon before going down themselves, with several more still hiding in the forest, sending in precise, accurate ranged attack into the clearing. The Guild should have found itself outnumbering us, but at the moment, we were dominating them. Except, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Blitz leap up and grab Rose early as she was released, tackling down a Weavile who had jumped up to kill Rose. Rolf and Alex started coordinating some of the guild Pokémon, and Blitz followed suit, bellowing out orders, and suddenly, a cascade of fire spread in a circle over our heads, immediately igniting the trees around the clearing. The fire spread so quickly, engulfing the entire trees, creating a wall of fire around the ring. The wall was weaker where Nightfire water Pokémon in the trees started putting out the fire. And Rolf was there, batting off an Umbreon, ordering the grass Pokémon to fire into these weak points. I heard several yelps coming from the trees, as the attacks found their targets. Our fire Pokémon passed through the wall to join the battle, only to be met by Alex and a group of water Pokémon circling several times, and taking out any fire Pokémon under our arms. All of a sudden things were starting to look bad for us.

Sending several dark beams into a crowd of them trying to attack Ghost, I blocked and parried several attacks from countless Pokémon. Waiting for my chance, I leaped out towards an Amphoros, hitting it hard across the face, and powering a dark pulse at point blank into his chest, which caved in on itself, as the Amphoros went limp. But more Pokémon just set upon me afterward. I caught a glimpse of Night, clearing off several Pokémon, shields of stone rising from the ground in instants to block attacks from behind, rendering him almost untouchable. I point quickly towards Blitz and Rolf, acknowledged with a nod, as he broke free from the group fighting him, leaping towards Blitz. I shook myself free, using close combat to pummel several Pokémon trying to attack me, moving in such a flurry that they had no hope of defending themselves. I leaped towards Rolf, tackling him down on to the ground, sending a dark pulse to knock out a Golem using Rollout to try and attack me from behind, as he stumbled onto the ground, bouncing over me as I ducked, on top of Rolf. Rolf tried to hit me, but I grabbed his arm bending it until he started gasping, and I punched him squarely in the face, while again just touching his spike with my hand, gently. It was a bit odd, employing this now, but I thought it was one way of incapacitating him. Sure enough, he started to flush again, and I finished bending his arm; by snapping it. The crunch made his eyes jump out of their sockets, as I got up, lifting him by my one hand grabbing his chest spike, and flung him towards the wall of fire. He was just about to hit before Alex managed to catch him, but by his broken arm, as he cried out in pain. I glanced over towards Blitz and Night. Usually, Night should be all over Blitz, but with the help of a few other Pokémon, Night was just distracted enough for Blitz' speed to get the better of him, Blitz landed several punches, and as soon as he saw a weak point, a point blank flame attack, straight at Night. Above us, a battle in the sky also raged, bodies dropping after hits, feathers being torn out by the Pokémon. Crossfire between the two planes of fighting still occurred though, knocking Pokémon out of the sky, pummeling Pokémon into the ground. I couldn't help but admire the scene orchestrated by Night and Blitz and Rolf. It was an entire symphony of ordered chaos, death, and battle.

I was almost daydreaming too vividly to notice a high power water jet fly towards me, but I leaned back just at the right moment, using my psychic to curve the water to hit Blitz, staggering him enough for Night to land a solid hit, as I sent a hyper beam towards the floundering Pokémon who tried to hit me. The numbers were starting to thin now, and Nightfire didn't look to be doing too well. But that was only because most of our reinforcements couldn't make it into battle. I hated to admit it, but we needed to retreat. Ghost wasn't faring any better, Pokémon found the best way to beat him was to cling on and jump off if he tried to thrash them into the ground, then jump on again. He was so fixated on them, that other Pokémon were able to land attacks on him. I rushed over, grabbing Night out of the way of a flamethrower, pulling him with me. His claw came up to my throat as a reflex, but he relaxed when he noticed it was me. "Night, we need to go. Now" I stated, peering over to watch our numbers slowly dwindle.

"Grab who you can, and retreat south. We get enough speed, we can use the forest to take out any stupid enough to follow us. We did good today, I didn't expect so many to follow us out." He nodded, darting off, several Pokémon being raised from the ground by sand, all Nightfire Pokémon, as flying Pokémon picked them off the sand pillar, and retreating away. The flaming trees were starting to flare up even more, but Nightfire Pokémon should have been cutting down trees around them to prevent it spreading to camp easily. Using psychic, I too pulled whoever I could identify of the ground, dashing out of the forest, through the fire, going fast enough not to burn, and pulling the Pokémon in a line behind me. Ghost reluctantly followed suit, but he couldn't travel too fast. He would get caught if they chased us. A few started to try and follow, but Blitz held them back, shaking his head. He was a bit cut up from Night, but looking at the Garchomp, it seems Blitz managed to get the better of him; his usually slightly blue scales had turned black in splotches over his body, where he had been burned.

That fire will kill most of the forest, unless they put it out, which leaves the area open to attack if we regroup. But I think Night wanted to minimize losses, shown by him pulling Pokémon out. Usually, he would leave them, one or two losses were acceptable. But even with the Pokemon we managed to pull out, I'm sure we missed a few. And since the area was completely under lockdown by the Guild Pokémon, they were now captives. Each one is trained to withstand torture from a competent captor, but everybody has their weakness, that I know for myself. Night let me have a go at training, and I managed to completely crack one recruit to tears as he spilled what he knew. Night had been struggling to get anything out of him at all. Of course, once the whole ordeal was endured, they were treated with good food and luxuries.

After making a large circle, we arrived back at the temporary camp, still with many Pokémon in, as we brought in the wounded, and some dead. Ghost immediately sauntered off to sleep, as Night went to address the camp.

"Today...was just a battle. But it marks the beginning of the war on the Guild. Even outnumbered, we took many more of them to their graves than they managed of us. We will make them fear the name Nightfire, we will take them to battle, to their deaths, and we will demolish the guild, bit by bit. This is the start, and the end won't take long. With the competent fighters who bear our standards, who carry our sigils, who wear the ensign of Nightfire, we stand no chance of failure again against the disorganized, differing Pokémon in the Guild. We may have lost the first fight, but it will be the only one they win. For glory or for death!" He called out, the Pokémon listening in cheering, applauding and smiling. Night's small speech made the whole camp a lot happier than the dismal mood that had just surrounded it. And it also showed his intentions, no longer were we just blindly following a leader; we now had the objective in sight.

I walked over to Night, standing by his side and looking at the rest of the camp. "So that's what this was. This was just an opening to start a war between Nightfire and the Guild?" I asked, lowering my voice.

"Yes. They only have a few faces that represent the Guild, and our fighting ability greatly outweighs theirs. The chances are, if we prey on groups of them if they leave the Guild area, we should be able to lure them out to another fight, this time more in our favor. We need to get Rolf, Blitz, and Arthur out of the picture, as they are the only Pokémon in that Guild who together can organize the rabble. While it shouldn't be a problem if they do manage to help the guild fully, I just don't want to waste our ranks on them." He nodded. "Ariel...I trust you. I trust you more than I would trust Ghost. I need your help to win this. Unfortunately, I've shown I'm a bit of a waste in a battle where I'm being attacked by 4 or more Pokémon, whereas you can handle that fine. I need you to be the face of the attack here, to be the one that hunts down the adventurers and end their lives. Make it graphic, leave a scene, do what you want. I'll leave two squads of three under your command for this. Lay low around the guild, and attack anyone who leaves the line of sight of the guild. We may be able to get some high priority targets out, and clean up quickly." He smiled a wicked grin, all fangs bearing, and his eyes a bit distant. A crusade against the Guild, who would have ever guessed?


	8. Chapter 8 - Recovery (Blitz)

_Author's note: I understand it has been ages since my last chapter. I consider my studies more important than my writing, but I will be continuing with this story more in my spare time. Again, any criticism would be appreciated._

Panting, aching, and tired, I watched the glistening body of Ghost trail behind the others, it was almost tempting to go after him myself. But I resisted this urge, gripping the shoulder of a Hitmontop also attempting to give chase, and calling out not to continue the attack. You could still make out the Gyarados through the flames thanks to his luminescence, but he was gradually disappearing into the night. They had retreated further East into the forest, carrying Pokemon with them. Their base would probably be a while in that direction, and it was worth making note of this for future use.

The battle that had just transpired was furious, hectic and disorganized. Nobody had any idea Nightfire had any other Pokemon fighting for them. They could have been just random outlaws, except for the large Ns painted, shaved, or carved onto their bodies. I couldn't help but shudder at the last, as I spotted it on a Machoke's chest. We had won the battle, though we lost many due to the surprise attack that we were lured into. Dead bodies of mostly guild members littered the clearing, due to many Nightfire Pokemon being taken off. However, some were left behind, including some still alive, which means we could question them, or failing that ransom them. Though I doubt Nightfire would do these sort of trades.

I stood back alongside Alex and Rolf, as the early orange sun rose behind us, watching as our water Pokemon doused the dying flames, revealing more Nightfire Pokemon knocked unconscious, some dead or dying. Alex stood proudly, having come out of the battle well. Rolf had ordered him to cruise the fire, dealing with fire Pokemon, which proved to be a good call, stopping extra Pokemon joining the fight. The large Feraligatr glanced down to Rolf as I approached, showing concern on his face slightly. I mirrored his look, before crouching down to a sitting Rolf, clutching his right arm across his body. It was possible to see the deformation of his forearm that he held on his lap, which looked rather broken. I sat down in front of him, pulling his other arm away to have a closer look.

"Don't touch it, it hurts" He exclaimed, as I pulled his arm away. "That bitch Ariel did it. She came out of nowhere and just snapped my fucking arm" He cursed. I believe he was swearing more out of a coping mechanism for the pain, rather than his hatred of Ariel, though I did not doubt that there was more than enough of that second sentiment. He took his eyes away from his arm, looking up into mine. "It was a trap, Blitz. It was all a trap. We had so many, and it was a trap." I put my hand on his shoulder of his good arm, shaking my head.

"None of us knew. None of us could have known." I replied. It was not like Rolf to lose his cool, and he seemed to be destabilizing slightly, either out of pain or anger. "We took the fight to them though. We could have lost a way more." He nodded to my statement. I stood back up facing Alex.

"Do you know where Rose is?" I asked. I had plucked her out of the air just as a Weavile slashed at me. I dove through the forest first to set her down with others, before returning to the clearing. The flames had separated a group of the guild behind the forest away from us.

"Yeah, she's with Arthur at the moment, just behind the trees" He responded in his gruff, deep voice, as he pointed behind him, to the burnt trunks at the edge of the clearing. I nodded in appreciation as I headed over towards the trees. Past the first few, I spotted the Sceptile kneeling and tending to Rose. Arthur had some knowledge in aid and medical treatment, so he could be some help. He glanced up as I approached, seemingly calm, unlike the rest of us, who all looked restless and unnerved. Upon kneeling the other side of Rose, I could see slight shakes in his hand, subtle bites of his own lip, which showed his frustration, his own fear fullness. He was dabbing a wet cotton pad onto Rose's closed eyes. I didn't realize how much damage had been done to her, but it was all blunt trauma. dark purple bruises decorated her body, and face. Both her eyes looked blackened and swollen.

"Blitz..." Arthur shook his head after some silence. "What happened?" He asked, stopping his tending momentarily to look up, before returning.

I sighed. "It was a trap. Nightfire has other Pokemon that were waiting for us. We won the fight...but..." I hesitated to tell Arthur. "We lost many Pokemon ourselves." I looked away, not wanting to see Arthur cringe. He had a tendency to take things out of his control personally. "I just don't understand, why Rose? Why take her?"

Arthur appeared to busy himself with catering to Rose, whilst searching for an answer. "If it's a trap...Then it's to do exactly what it achieved. Lure multiple Pokemon out to their deaths. I think they weren't expecting so many ready for them." He let out a little frown. "I wish I came straight here to help. But Night left a trail of wounded Pokemon in his path, I had to tend to them as the rest of the guild continued. And for that I'm sorry." He muttered. I shook my head repeatedly, dismissing his apology.

"So many Pokemon lost their lives, for me" Rose spoke softly, raspy. I almost jumped out of my skin with surprise. "Forgive me, Rose, I did not realize you were awake still" I apologized quickly. "How are you feeling?" I asked gently, placing my hand on her hand that was on the floor. I felt her fingers react to my touch, twitching as I did so.

"I've felt better. I'm okay though, it was just Ghost" She dismissed. She was braver than she looked for sure. It was always the case. She would always stick up for what she thought was right and defend it vehemently. It was definitely one of the reasons I was so close to her. I helped her argue with the Guildmaster about sharing our food stocks with the town orphanage, in order to feed them. She was so passionate about helping, about doing the right thing, it was inspiring. Seeing her like this, still caring for others when she was in danger, was heartbreaking. I wove my fingers through her, and she grasped onto my digits as they slipped through. Arthur was packing up his kit, heading off towards the clearing.

"Blitz, can you please take Rose back to the guild, she should recover in a couple of days." Arthur quipped. "Oh, and I also found a note in Rose's room that Ghost left there." He held up a post it note, not dissimilar from the one Ariel had left, with blood over it, likely Rose's, and a clear, emboldened message. "You're next" Arthur read it aloud. returning it to his case. "It's rather unsettling, but we might see more of this attack. Maybe it's a threat to us, maybe to the guild. I don't know at this point" He shrugged, his fingers still shaking slightly. He nodded to me again, before she headed off, leaving us alone. I was scared of the implication of the message. Maybe the note was written for who they thought would receive it, maybe it was supposed to be found afterward. I wasn't sure, and this didn't help in deciding whether or not the note was left for me, for team knights, or the guild itself. It was not good news either way.

"Do you think you can stand?" I asked. Rose swallowed, shaking her head slightly, very slowly. In response, I let go of her hand, pushing my arms underneath her gently, lifting her up in my arms. My right arm held her back, resting underneath the chest plate protruding from her back, and my left arm underneath the crook of her knees. She raised her arms to wrap around the back of my neck for support, as she lay her head on my chest, still looking as if she would doze back off any second. We marched into the sunset, back towards the guild.

"Rose?" I asked, half just checking if she was still, half wanting to talk to her.

"Yes?" She meekly responded. Now wasn't the best time to make conversation.

"I'm glad you are safe. I really am." I smiled softly, looking down at her. She half-heartedly returned the smile, the kindness in her eyes replacing the pain momentarily, before closing her eyes again. "I'm glad you are safe too, Blitz..." she mumbled, before dropping off to sleep. I couldn't help but admire her smooth features, despite the bruising. I could see both her eyes, as her hair was drawn to one side. The frills at the side of her face looked soft and curved gently upwards, and her hair locks still retained their perfect curls. I couldn't get her earlier proposition out of my mind, just looking at her. And the events brought to light her comments, that the distraction would be a welcome one, and that we'd have each other to support. Something we would both need sooner or later anyway. Before something else had the chance to take her away from me again.

As we entered back into the guild, I realized I did not actually know which room was hers. She was sound asleep in my arms, so I headed back to my room. It was relatively clean, as was necessary, but I made sure to tidy up my desk of papers, after I set her down on my bed, and put the blanket over her. She continued to sleep through it, and I sat on the chair, facing her. I smiled, making up my mind about her question, with my chin resting on my hand, as I felt my eyelids grow heavier, and heavier, till I too joined her in slumber.

I woke sometime later, when my head slipped from my hand, the mini heart attack it gave me jolting me upright. I chuckled to myself briefly, before standing up and yawning, stretching both arms behind my back as I did. I still felt sore from the recent fights, my aching muscles reminding me of this, as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, to reveal an empty bed, my empty bed. It took me a couple of seconds before I was immediately awake.

"R-Rose!" I stammered, lifting the blankets as if she would magically appear from underneath. She was in no state to go anywhere at the moment, I had to find her, quickly. I jumped towards the door, yanking it open, but recoiling at the sight I saw. The doorway was... pitch black. a void, nothingness. I reached my hand towards it slowly, I couldn't stop myself. Inching closer and closer to the blackness, my palm opened, as if accepting another hand into it. Out of the darkness, a white arm shot through towards my hand, grasping, trying to grab me. I pulled my arm back quickly, stepping away from the door. I looked back into my room for escape, and my window was gone. How? It was if it never existed.

"Blitz...take my hand..." A wispy, entrancing voice escaped from the void, the hand that was just trying to grab me, now extended as an invitation. I gulped, hesitant to commit.

"Blitz..." It repeated, the hand raising very slightly. The voice was almost angelic, almost heavenly. "Please...take my hand..." With every plea, I felt more and more mesmerized, more and more willing to do as it said. There was no other choice. I reached forward, slowly again, ready to react if the hand grabbed at me again. The pearlescent white hand almost glowed, in huge contrast to the black hole it protruded from. I reached to take the hand, upon touching it, it was silken, soft, almost weightless.

"Take me with you" it pleaded again, asking me to bring it out of the void. I pulled gently on the hand as if coercing the body to retreat from its black cell. The arm attached was also pearly white, and definitely glowed slightly, as it appeared out of the doorway. Suddenly, the hand materialized, it grabbed me harder, feeling like a hand grabbing me rather than a ghost. I couldn't move, I was petrified by what was happening, just watching the scene unfold. The hand that gripped me hard was also soft and turned a pale blue color, but it was not glowing anymore. I could feel the callouses on the back of my hand, where its fingers lay. I saw a bit of light blue appear from the doorway, near the top, as the voice called out again. Except this time I could tell the voice, it was slightly harsher, still as melodic, but a lower pitch. I could tell whose voice it was immediately; Ariel's.

"Blitz, meet me tonight, by the cliff" She ordered, her face now through the doorway, her dull red scar more than visible face to face, with her blue hair covering her second eye. She wore no expression, her mouth moving only to speak, her eye unblinking. Her dress was beginning to pierce the blackness, entering into the room with me. I continued stepping backward, trying to get away from her, as she emerged from the abyss, but her hand pulled me closer towards her. I was pulling away with all my force, my other hand grasping hers, trying to pull her off of me, trying to peel her fingers off of my hand, to no avail. Her other arm, leaving the door gripped my free arm near my shoulder, her other hand doing the same, holding both of my arms near the shoulder, so I was facing her, eye to eye, as she leaned towards me more. I could hear myself letting out whimpers, feel sweat damping my fur, feel my flame grow a bright blue in fear of Ariel. Her solid clasp on my arms kept me stationary, as her face came closer to mine, her lips parting very slightly as if leaning in for a kiss. I couldn't look away, I couldn't close my eyes, I just watched, until her face was about 4 inches from mine.

In the space of a second, Ariel's face distorted, morphing, into the shape of a Gallade's face, Sha's. "YOU KILLED ME!" He bellowed, his face still getting closer, his grip unyielding still, as the arm blades sprouted from the arms of his body, as the dress shone briefly, transforming into the two separate stockier legs, as the waist widened slightly. I opened my mouth to scream, and heard no noise escape, yet my lungs burned, my throat tickling from my shout, my eyes watering, crying? I felt my legs give way, yet he held me up in his grasp, pulling my face closer, anger in his eyes, his teeth baring, his grip tightening still. At this point, I could see the whites of his eyes cracking with red, bloodshot.

"Sha, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." I whimpered, this time noise escaping my mouth. I closed my eyes, finally able to turn my face away, as I was dropped onto the floor, into a heap. "I'm sorry..." I whisper, unwanting to open my eyes again. My heart felt so heavy like it was keeping me from standing up, my head, even with closed eyes, felt like it was going to cave in. Everything was silent, at last, spare the faint roar of my flames, spare my heavy breathing. I leaned back to fall completely on the floor, to find the wall at my back.

"Blitz?" A new voice called out. I couldn't focus on the feminine voice, but it was getting sharper. "Blitz, are you ok?" She asked. I dared to open my eyes, my vision blurred with water, but I could make out my room again. It was Rose, Rose was back.  
"Blitz, please answer me." She encouraged, her voice gentle, soothing. I opened both of my eyes fully, to look at her. She was lying on my bed, still bruised. Still there. I glanced around at the rest of the room quickly. My door was closed, my wall had its window back, and my chair was toppled over the floor in my direction. Everything was back to normal.

"Rose...I..." I started, unsure how to explain what happened, gradually coming to my senses. It had felt so real, so vivid. I was there, definitely, and my arms still ached from the grip on my arms, my tears still very real. "I think...it was a bad dream..." I sighed, my voice shaking as I spoke in almost a whisper. Rose wore a look of concern, getting out of my bed to walk over to me, reaching for my hands with hers. I recoiled from her touch but eased and let her hold my hands, as she moved her thumbs over the back of my hands, running over my fur, over my knuckles. She was crouched down to my level, still looking completely concerned, despite looking in a state herself. Her eye was still badly bruised, and her body not much better. I pulled her hand up to mine, using my fur to rub away my tears, repeating the process with my other hand after. My heart still felt like a weight, the air completely taken out of my from the nightmare. Every time I blinked, all I saw was Sha's face in mine, shouting at me, blaming me. He was right. Why did I let us take on Nightfire? Why am I now conversing with the one person who tried to kill me, who tried to kill my team mate?

Rose removed one of her hands from mine, to caress the fur on my neck, which was more calming than I'd care to let on.  
"Did you want to talk about it?" She asked, lowering the volume of her voice more to match mine. My mind raced to think of how to even describe it, let alone which parts I should even mention.  
"I'm...I'm just having nightmares about Shaolan" I stated simply, shaking my head.

"You're in a real state for a nightmare," She responded tenderly. "He must have meant a lot to you." I nodded in response to her statement, agreeing. I glanced out the window; it looked as bright as it was going to get today, meaning I had only been asleep for 4 hours, at best. I still felt slightly tired, but Rose was still using my bed. I couldn't sleep again on the chair, so I suppose I would just lean against the door, or the wall, and drift off. "You can use your bed if you want." She prompted, her hands leaving my body, as she stood up, albeit slowly.

"No, you need the bed more than I do" I exclaimed, as I pushed myself up against the wall better, to make myself more comfortable, though it achieved very little. I rubbed my hand again over my cheek, which was still slightly damp. My breathing was returning to normal, as I tried to relax. Rose still looked concerned, as if she was about to interject again. It would be a Canadian stand off if I didn't make sure she took my bed. "Rose, you're hurt. Please get some rest, I'm just having a bad sleep, that hardly warrants priority." I dismissed her concern, and she reluctantly headed back over to my bed, moving slowly. She was clearly still in pain.

I rested my head on the stones making up my wall, watching Rose. I don't think I would get to sleep easily, but I sure needed it. I had already forgotten half of the details of the nightmare, only remembering that Ariel had grabbed me, and then Shaolan had yelled at me. But his words still stuck. 'You killed me' I repeated in my head, and possibly in a whisper as well. I sighed, feeling another tear leave my right eye, which I brushed away. I sure hope he didn't feel that way, looking down on me. I hope he knows that I'm just doing my best...even if I still had to meet with Ariel later this evening, I was not looking forward to it.

"Night, Blitz" Rose sighed, from underneath the duvet. I mumbled 'Goodnight' to Rose through a yawn, the sun peering through the window and onto her, lighting up the white duvet she slept under. I realized that between the temperature, and the duvet, Rose might end up cooking, but I was just too tired to care, just wanting to slip off into sleep. My muscles ached, and now my heart. I just hoped my body would recover by this evening.


	9. Chapter 9 - Ambush (Ariel)

I had left camp a couple of hours ago, once the sun had begun to rise. I noticed that I was yawning very often, and I had a headache starting to grow on me, meaning I had clearly not gotten enough sleep recently. Not that is matters too much, I just needed to stay awake until this evening to meet Blitz, as planned. But until then, I was heading towards the guild area with one of the groups of three Pokemon that Night had picked out for me to take. A Serperior, a Froslass and a Jolteon accompanied me this time, who he promised were good fighters. I enjoyed the fact that he put several Pokemon of different types under my employ, it would certainly make it easier to achieve his plan. As he stated, my job was to attack guild parties and patrols in the area around the guild, which I planned to continue with. Though I had sated a lot of my anger when fighting the Luxray, and my taste for battle with the huge one that just passed, I wouldn't be the one to pass up an opportunity to attack guild members.

It had been mostly silent on the way over until the Jolteon spoke up, and I couldn't decide whether it was out of fear that he hadn't spoken earlier, or out of respect.

"You're Ariel...right?" He asked, his voice clear and modulated. I glanced back, his face not wearing an expression as we traveled along the path heading north towards the guild. I had chosen the path because it was largely unused and out of sight, despite being a bit longer. It was overgrown with vegetation, weeds starting to reclaim the path underneath our feet. I nodded in response to his question, waiting for a second question to come from him, which didn't come.

After another minute, he spoke up again. "It's good to meet you in person. I suppose Night really did mean this was serious."

I glanced back towards him again, trying to decide how to respond. Considering I was going to have to stay with this Jolteon for a while, I decided being more cordial would achieve more in the long run.

"Yes, this would be a lot of trust he's put in you. He's told me, that all three of you are some of the best that Nightfire has to offer, in terms of fighting. I intend to put this to the test. We're going on a little hunting trip you see" I winked as I turned back to face forward. I caught a glimpse of unease of all three of their faces as I winked, which I smiled to myself about. It felt great to have that kind of effect on people.

"What do you mean 'test'?" A higher pitched voice chimed in. I could tell it was the Froslass, due to the fact the voice was coming more from my right, which is where the Froslass was when I last glanced.

"Well, he told you what we are doing, right?" I asked.

"Sort of. He told us we were to do exactly as you say, and that we would be attacking Guild Pokemon." She responded.

I slowed down my pace, as I turned around to face them, walking backward. I could see the Froslass and Serperior tracing my scar on my face with their eyes as I did. As if it was my main defining feature, and not that I was a bright blue color. "So...If I were to tell you to stop where you are, and turn around 10 times really fast, you'd do it?" I raised an eyebrow at them. The three Pokemon all stopped as I mentioned it, but none of them continuing but looking at the others to see if they should be doing it or not. The Jolteon piped up as soon as he realized they were all doing nothing.

"I'm not going to spin around 10 times for your amusement, no" He replied, without any dryness in his voice.

"I like you." I nodded. "First test being thinking for yourselves, I think we now know who gets to go first in fighting the guild Pokemon" I smiled, as I turned back around, continuing. I could feel their confusion as they followed me, continuing towards our destination.

Arriving closer towards the guild, I ducked off of the main path, to a dirty side path that veered to my right. This path would lead towards a lot of shrubbery, around the corner of the guild. Far enough away that the sound produced from a fight there would not be enough to alert the guild, but close enough that it would be noticed quickly by passing by Pokemon. I glanced back as we headed down the dirt path, to check on my team. All three looked alert still, almost scared. Maybe a better way to describe it would be apprehensive, though whether that is due to my presence of that they were going to do something, I wasn't sure. It wasn't long until we reached the spot, a large row of dense plants, with trees behind them, lined the main path away from the guild. This path led east of the guild, so was probably going to be largely considered safe, as it headed towards town. I stopped beside the trees, moving slowly, gesturing for the other three to stay, as I peeked out of the bushes onto the path. All was clear, at least for now. I turned back around to face my team.

"Alright, this is the spot. The plan is to jump any group of Pokemon heading from the guild towards town...not the other way around. The townspeople are of no concern to us" I whispered, keeping my voice down. They all nodded in response. "Likelihood is that they will be sending parties towards town in order to get supplies to help with the injured there. Or food. Serperior, you head up the trees, in sight. You give me a signal when you see a guild party about 200 yards away. And Froslass, you wait for my signal to attack, at which point Serperior, you will be able to jump down from above, you'll have an aerial advantage. Pun intended" I couldn't help but wink at my wordplay. I caught the Jolteon giving me a bit of a dry look in response. Clearly not a fan.

"What about me, Ariel?" He asked.

"I'll attack them once the other two have them distracted, you can help me when I do so. We should be able to take anyone who comes down here out like this" I explain. I didn't expect any of them to do much, as I could probably kill a couple of Pokemon using this tactic before they even realized I was attacking them. I sat near the base of a second tree, brushing the leaves on the floor aside before I sat down on the stumps, and leaned back against the bark. The Serperior and Froslass took positions, as the unsure Jolteon just sat down opposite me, a couple of meters away.

I didn't expect much action, so it wasn't long before I could feel my eyelids starting to give up on me, out of boredom. I sighed, trying desperately to keep awake, trying to not fall asleep.

"Serperior, is there anyone coming?" I asked. The Pokemon shook its head, so I turned towards the Jolteon. "Give me your biggest shock. I need it." I demanded. I could see the hesitation on his face, before he blasted me with a thundershock, a brilliant yellow enveloping his body, and I could make out as it jumped to me, the warm feeling and tingling sensation coursing through me. "Come on. I asked you for your biggest shock. I had harder ones when I was in prison" I insulted, and in response, he ramped up the voltage. The shock sent my muscles into a slight spasm, as my back snapped up straight, and my teeth gritted together. I managed to gesture for him to stop, which he did immediately. As his lightning released me, I felt myself relax, breathing heavily as I recovered. I certainly felt much more awake now. I could feel a slight blush force its way across my face as a result of the shock, and I did my best to keep it under control while watching the questioning stares of all three Pokemon.

"Why did you ask me to do that?" The Jolteon questioned, in a matter of fact tone of voice.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I winked back at him, receiving again a very unnerved expression from all three. I chuckled at their responses. "I needed to wake up a bit. I'm just a bit used to electric shocks, I suppose." I answered properly. The Jolteon nodded, not saying anything more. In more of another effort to keep myself entertained, I decided to give him a round of 20 questions. "What brought you to Nightfire?" I asked, as the Jolteon, who looked away immediately in thought.

"Well...Night recruited me himself. I was captured by a group of 4 guild members. I mean, it was four on one, I wasn't surprised it happened. We were heading out of the dungeon I had been chased into when Night attacked the group. He knocked 2 of them out, as the other 2 ran. Then asked me to join Nightfire." He replied, hardly holding my gaze at any point of his story.

"Why do you think he recruited you?"

"Because I was a good fighter. It was the reason he gave, anyway. I clearly wasn't that good if I lost to some guild members." He scoffed. I smiled momentarily at his response, before going back to asking questions.

"What was your worst crime, before you joined Nightfire?" I raised my eyebrow as I asked the question, as the Jolteon looked sheepishly away.

"That's the embarrassing part. Until Nightfire, all I did was steal things. I ended up learning how to use my electricity to bypass electrical locks, and steal some nice stuff." He replied. He made it sound almost as if not amounting to anything more than that was to be shunned upon.

"Ah, that's the problem with getting good at your 'profession'" I chuckled. "You get a nice big fat reward on your head. And then the better members of the guild come after you, for the exact same reason you did what you did." I looked him over. He was somewhat small for a Jolteon, despite being eye level as we sat down, and was rather thin for his kind. "And because all you knew was how to steal stuff, you didn't know how to fight properly. I'm not surprised Night wanted you." I shrugged. The Jolteon was nodding slowly, taking in what I had said. You can accuse Night of a lot of things, but he's certainly been building up to this moments from years back. I wouldn't have the patience to slowly band together a bunch of criminals, let alone train them, yet he's done exactly that.

"They're coming" A quiet hiss interrupted my thoughts from above, as I glanced up to the Serperior, her red eyes reflecting the little sun coming through the canopy. I nod to her to acknowledge, as I waited by the tree, unmoving. The Froslass looked towards me for my signal, seemingly slightly nervous. We were silent, nothing but the breeze on the leaves could be heard, as I listened for the footsteps of the Pokemon coming. Slowly, but surely, I could make out the footsteps of the group, though I couldn't tell how many, but I guessed above 3. I listened as I picked up the voices, only 2 of them talking, but it helped in locating them. I nodded towards the Froslass, hoping to time it that she would quite literally jump in front of them, about 5 meters away. The Froslass dove through the plants, as I could make out the Froslass casting a Blizzard, and firing icicles at the group. Panicked calls came from the Pokemon, as the scattered to evade the attacks. 'Watch for the icicles!' one of them called, as I signaled to the Serperior to attack. The Serperior fired razor leaves down at the group, before jumping down. I got to my feet, peeking through the gaps in the plants. The Serperior had wrapped its body around a Loudred, trapping it and squeezing the Pokemon, while doing the same thing to a Raticate with its vines, subduing both Pokemon and taking them out of the battle. The Froslass had clearly managed to deal some damage to the remaining three Pokemon, a Charmeleon, Buizel, and Mareep, but was looking weak, which I estimated to by the Charmeleon's attacks. The Serperior had just been spotted by the Mareep, due to the cries of the Loudred as it struggled. It sent an electric attack at the Serperior, who weaved around what it could, being struck a couple of times by them, but not too affected by the attacks. The Charmeleon sent a flamethrower at the Froslass, causing her to dive out of the way before he turned to the Serperior. Two well-placed ember attacks hit the vines holding the Raticate down, and another flamethrower hit the Serperior's body, causing her to recoil, releasing her grip on the Loudred enough for it to wriggle out. I signaled that now was the time for me and the Jolteon to go in, as I drew my knife from its holster, leaping from the plants, heading for the Charmeleon before he knew what was coming. I wrapped my left arm around his chest, pulling him back as he lost balance, and when I got a view of his chest as he began to struggle, I plunged the knife into his chest, as his body ceased struggling quickly, his maw opening at the sight of my knife sticking out of his body, as I lowered him to the ground, pulling the knife out and re-brandishing it, turning to see the situation. The Jolteon and I stood between the guild members, splitting them into 2 groups of 2. The Froslass was looking pretty worse for wear, so I tilted my head in the direction of the Raticate and Loudred for the Jolteon to join the Serperior, as I sent a hyper beam at the Mareep, it was slower, so would be an easier target. My beam did indeed hit, knocking the Mareep out cold immediately, as the Buizel prepared a hydro pump aimed at me. I saw the Froslass intercept the attack as it left his mouth, waving her arm at the attack, which froze mid-air, before falling to the ground and shattering. I had recovered from my hyper beam now, so I aimed a dark pulse at the ground in front of him. As planned, the ground kicked up dust due to the force of the attack, as I leaped towards where he was with my knife drawn. Piercing through the dust, I swiped, to find he had moved. I whipped around to see him charging down the Froslass. The Froslass fired an icicle at the Buizel, which it dodged easily, firing a swift attack at the Froslass as it moved. The move hit, stunning the Froslass, giving the Buizel enough time to start a double hit. I started running for the pair, as the first hit from the Buizel struck the Froslass, but before he could land a second attack a vine shot out from behind me, gripping his foot, and pulling him immediately to the floor with a thud. The Buizel then started being dragged back towards the Serperior, who cast Leaf Blade; a long, razor sharp leaf formed in front of the Serperior, its edge glinting in the sunlight.

"No! No!" The Buizel called out in a panicked, high, pleading voice. "Please!" He begged. The Serperior slashed through the Buizel's neck with the blade, causing a sound of choking from the water Pokemon as he stopped kicking, blood beginning to pool around his neck. I nodded to the Serperior, looking over at the Loudred and Raticate, both unconscious with slightly singed fur.

"Kill them all." I ordered to the Serperior, heading back over to the Froslass, the Jolteon following me.

"Ariel" The Froslass addressed, her voice faltering slightly.

"Head back to camp. You'll need the break. Well done." I stated firmly, as she nodded, leaving immediately. I turned towards the Jolteon, who had again sat down, awaiting my order. The fight hadn't gone as well as I had intended, but we still had killed a group of five, and they would be discovered shortly. I was happy with the performance of the Serperior and Jolteon and again impressed at Night's choice of Pokemon. "Jolteon. You and Serperior head back down the dirt path, I will meet you there." I ordered, taking a purse from the Charmeleon's hip, bouncing it twice in my hand. "I'll get us some food" I smiled, as I headed towards the town.

As I drew closer to Ethos, I chose to remain around the outskirts of the town. I would be noticed too easily otherwise, but I wanted to get into town. I busied myself counting the gold in the purse I pinched, which amounted to a larger amount than I had expected. I shook my head, as I resealed the bag, heading towards the back of town. I approached the shop I wanted from behind, heading towards the front from the side. I glanced down the sides of the street, seeing it was empty for now, with a few Pokemon in the distance, or busying themselves at some other shops, I had a short amount of time.

"Kristine" I called softly into the shop, without heading onto the road. "It's Ariel". I headed back towards the back of the shop, as the back door opened, revealing a Meowth coming out of the shop. The Meowth was a light vanilla color, with gray ears, and a gray tail and forepaws, with the classic gold ornament on her forehead. She stepped out, closing the door behind her.

"Ariel? Why are you here? You know you're not supposed to be here." She scowled, crossing her arms at me. "I would rather not have to explain to customers why I'm serving a murderer." Her voice was sharp, almost bitter. I knew she didn't like me much, but she knew me from when I was younger, and I was hoping this was enough to get something from her.

"Sorry. I just want some food. I'll pay double, as I normally would." I asked, opening my purse to take some coins out. I had visited before, infrequently, if I needed food. There's no point having gold from other Pokemon if you aren't able to spend it, right?

"How do I know that money isn't pilfered from some poor Pokemon?" She asked, the corners of her mouth turning down at me. "I hate the idea of taking dirty money."

"It's okay, they won't be needing it anymore." I smiled at her. The disgusted face I got in response was worth the comment.

"You are evil. Just give me the bag of coins, and you can take any food you need, and I won't report that you're here to the police" She threatened. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Making threats? I hope you realize that I could easily take what I want, right?" I asked. She shook her head in response.

"I know your game, Ariel. And it's not like you need this money. Just be happy I'm letting you get anything. Anyway, my door locks behind me, so it's not like you could get anything out of it with me dead" She scowled, taking the purse out of my hands, and turning back towards the door. "It's a voice activated lock. Gold" She said, leaning down towards the door lock, before pulling on the door, as it opened, and came back out shortly with a small big, filled with big apples, and an assortment of berries. "There. Happy?" She asked.

"Yes, thank you" I nodded, taking the bag from her. It was plenty of food for the three of us. "I'm glad you're still safe." I mentioned as I turned to head back to meet with the others. I caught a glimpse of a forlorn expression on Kristine's face, as she headed back into her shop. I must have known her for over 15 years now. She wished not to evolve, and so remained as a Meowth. We'd been at odds long ago, but I ended up working for her and getting to know her a lot better, and her me. Deep down, I think she hoped that me helping her would change who I was. But I had already decided back then what I was going to do, even though I was just a Kirlia. She was still a friend to me, even if I was not one to her.

The sun was already beginning to set after I had left Ethos. I was heading back towards to dirt track to meet up with the Jolteon and Serperior, we were to take up a new position the another side of the guild, to do the same thing. To harass, and to cause losses. We had to head down the path in the evening when we had less chance of meeting anyone, as the path that led to where I wanted to go had a lot less cover, and we would have to run.

Making good progress towards our destination, the route took us to the west side of the guild, where the path crossed through a rocky area, with caves either side. Both caves were Dungeons, and Pokemon would often explore these from the guild. But the path also led completely out of town, towards a larger city. The large boulders in the area gave plenty of cover, not to mention ledges on the rocky walls that lined the path made for a great aerial assault. Heading up towards one of the higher ledges, I had no trouble climbing up the wall, as it had enough holdings on it, and leaned away from the path, it was easy. The Jolteon was having a bit more trouble, so the Serperior helped carry him as she made her own way up. Opening the bag up, I lay it on the floor, revealing the apples and berries to the other 2.

"Holy..." The Jolteon gasped. "How did you get so much?" His eyes lit up. Food was more sparse at the camp, so I suppose they hadn't expected a meal like this. The Jolteon looked questionably up at me. "Did you seriously steal this?"

I shook my head at him. "I haven't stolen from anyone but Guild members in a long time." I took a big apple, taking a bite out of it, and finishing my mouthful before speaking again. "I spent the money that was on the Charmeleon on food," I explained. "It's not like he had any use for it in the near future."

"I'm surprised you found somewhere willing to still give you food, you're not exactly unnoticeable" He commented, taking a few berries himself. The sun had already disappeared over the horizon, and it was getting harder to see as the sky gradually dimmed. I didn't reply, instead just taking some more food.

"I'm going to go back to Night and explain what we did today. And just make sure he doesn't have any new orders for us" I muttered, eating a pecha berry, before jumping down to the path. "I'll see you both in a bit" I dismissed, heading off into the night.

Taking the road back towards the town, I started to let myself hover instead of my normal walking. I always found it easier to hover, which used my psychic energy, but I didn't like it that much. It felt so much slower, and unnatural floating around, and a lot more in place by just walking. But a whole day of moving around often made my feet a bit sore, they weren't exactly made for walking around on all day. I made my way back towards the cliff edge, peering out into the sea. The moon was just starting to come up over the horizon, the sea twinkling and glistening as it reflected the moonlight. Turning back around, I took a seat next to a tree, looking up into the sky. My common way of just passing time was just to look at the constellations. I could only pick out a few groups, I didn't know many, but I could lose myself in the stars for hours at a time.

It wasn't as long as I thought before Blitz turned up, walking past me before he spotted me, and turned around in my direction as I stood up from the ground, brushing my dress to get rid of any dirt that may have been on it. I looked towards the moon, which had fully risen now, and was in the sky, but it was still fairly early in the night.

"A little eager, don't you think Blitz?" I smiled at him, as I crossed my arms. His face remained unchanging, stoic, much different to his usual demeanor.

"Eager to get this over with, I suppose," He retorted, a slight frown crossed his face as he spoke. I unfurled my arms, letting them drop to my front, whilst holding my left wrist with my right hand.

"If you're angry about what happened this morning, I couldn't have done anything else to help. I literally told you it was happening, and I managed to change Night's target from Arthur to some other Pokemon. That's actually what you asked me to do, right, look after you, AND team Knights?" I questioned. I could see anger split across his face as he raised his voice at me.

"You were the reason they attacked Rose?!" He exclaimed, pointing a finger towards my face. "Alright, Ariel, I can't stop your attack with your information, much less tell anyone about it, or I'll be known to be talking with you. And Rose! Why Rose!" He began to yell, his right arm gesticulating in anger. I opened my mouth to answer, but he kept going. "You have nothing against her! She is the nicest person in that guild and has always done everything for others. Why does she deserve that?"

I paused, not wanting to make him angrier with what I was going to say. "Blitz, firstly, I didn't know anything about Rose. I did more than my end of the bargain and you're still getting upset with me. I literally only chose her because she was a Gardevoir, there was no other reason." I spoke in a measured tone of voice.

He shook his head briefly, his hands on his hips as he did so. "Because she was a Gardevoir. How fucking petty"

"Yeah, it was. Just didn't know you had a thing for Gardevoirs" I shrugged. Blitz again lashed at me with his voice in anger.

"I don't have a thing for Gardevoirs. It is entirely a coincidence that you two are the same Pokemon. I have a thing for her, and definitely not for you" He growled, crossing his arms this time. I looked down at the ground, walking towards the edge of the cliff, again looking out to the sea, motioning for him to join me, in hopes that it would calm him slightly. I had to think about what I said next, as this was a chance for me to get on his good side...which would give me a little bit more hope in achieving what I wanted.

"Look, Blitz, I'm sorry, I truly am. I said I'm trying to protect you, and what I've done has hurt you. I didn't intend for that to be the case. I will try and keep Rose out of Night's plans in the future. To the best of my extent, I promise." I apologized, looking down towards him. I could see his resolve soften under my words.

"..." He paused, before looking back at me. "You really mean that?" He asked.

"Yeah. Anyway, I have more information for you, regardless. Make sure when you leave the guild area, you don't go alone." I informed. "Same with Rose."

He looked deep in thought after what I said, his fingers stroking his chin. "Is this to do with the bodies they found on the road towards the town?" He questioned. "They said 5 guild members were killed. They said it was a grass Pokemon and an electric Pokemon that did the attacks" He looked towards me. "That was you, though, wasn't it?"

I shook my head immediately. "I hadn't heard that they got targets so quickly. I didn't kill the 5 of them, no" I lied. Well, half lied. I know I'm too obvious when I flat out lie, so I hide it behind truths. Truth is, I only killed one of them, the Serperior killed the other 4. "Night might make me do the same, I expect. You can obviously consider yourself safe from me if we do happen to cross paths." I shrugged, purposefully deflating myself slightly.

"What about team Knights?" He asked. The question caught me out, and I had to think about what the best way of answering it would be.

"Well...I'd probably attack them unless they were all together, then I might be outmatched." I turned to face myself out towards the sea again.

"Well...please, for me, could you not attack them if you see them? You know Rolf's injured..." I caught myself before I grinned at his words, as he continued. "They're not worth fighting on your own." He pleaded.

"Blitz...I'm not sure that's something I can promise. Night expects me to put out, and I plan to. I'm doing everything I can to stop his expectations from including you." I shook my head, rejecting his request. "That's all."

He turned away from the water, taking a couple of steps away. "I'll see you here in two days then."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" I asked, deliberately honeying my words slightly, adding a slight drawl and seductive tone to my voice. I could see the hairs on his arms begin to stand.

"What?" He asked, apprehensive.

"Well...I've held my end of the bargain up so far..." I said suggestively. "I think it's about time for you to put out." I winked, closing his two steps towards him, and placing my hand on his forearm. He recoiled massively from this, shaking his head vigorously as he pulled away. "No!"

I stared at his over reaction, my look obviously quizzical enough for him to notice. "Sorry...I..." He stuttered, before reattempting. "Not tonight. No. I can't." He solidified, his voice still shaking a bit.

"I think maybe that I'll deserve more of a reward in that case," I stated, raising my eyebrow to him. I could see a slight panic cross his face. I loved this sort of control I had over people. "It's only fair, right?" I winked.

"What are you suggesting, Ariel" He muttered.

"Well, maybe instead of a kiss..." I could feel my face begin to blush as I began my sentence. I saw him tense up in anticipation before he interrupted me.

"No." He stated firmly. I laughed at him slightly, again closing the distance between us, but not as much as last time.

"I wasn't talking about that, silly. Geez, are you sure you say you don't have a thing for me, you're the one making the inference." I grinned. "Maybe I was just going to suggest '2 kisses'? Does that sound okay to you?"

"...yes." He reluctantly accepted, clearly happy it wasn't what he first thought I was going to say.

"Great. I'll see you in 2 nights." I said, watching as he nodded in response, turning away to head back to the guild. I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he was out of earshot; that was a very tense meet up. He was very clearly shaken up and upset due to what had happened, but I think that this is just the beginning of what Night intends to come, and there's only so much of it I can mitigate. I certainly supported Nightfire in their efforts against the guild and had very little reason to stop them. I just wanted to try and find a way to let Blitz walk away from the mess. Then maybe I would lose interest in Nightfire, once they had what they wanted.

I headed back to where my group was camping out on the ledge, taking me a short while to arrive. I clambered back up the wall, hoisting myself over the edge, and picking at the few berries that had been left there by the other two. It was only until I had finished the berries that I was interrupted.

"Ariel?" The voice groggily asked. I looked at the two Pokemon on the ledge, noticing the Jolteon's bright green eyes piercing the darkness. It was probably too dark for him to see, due to his eyes not being adjusted.

"Yeah" I responded, to put him more at ease, in case he suspected it was someone else. I watched as he continued to get up, instead of going back to sleep.

"Can I ask a question?" His tired voice broke the silence again, as he rubbed his eyes with his paw, sitting up fully now.

"Shoot" I responded, keeping my voice down as to not wake the Serperior.

"You asked me how I joined Nightfire earlier. How did you join?" He asked, his head tilting to one side.

"Hmm..." I had to think about this one. It felt like some time ago, even though I must have been technically one of their newer members. "Well...I had managed to work my way up to get the largest turn in reward on the guild boards. It meant I had a lot of people go after me. I kinda mistook Night and Ghost as another exploration team when Night found me. I knocked out Ghost fairly quickly, but it still took me a while. I then fought Night, and he wouldn't go down. It's not like he moved much or attacked much, but I couldn't hit him. I couldn't get close. He just tired me down, before attacking, and I couldn't tell where he was attacking me from either. He straight up beat me in the fight. He had me under him, and I thought he was just going to knock me straight out there and then, or worse...but he instead offered his hand to help me up, and then explained that he was part of Nightfire and that he wanted me to join. It was weird, he was almost super friendly to me, even though seconds ago I had been trying my best to get him." I smirked, smiling at my own reminiscence. "He sensed my hesitation and pulled a dagger out of the bag he was carrying with him. It's actually the same one I have now." I stated, pulling my dagger from its sheath. It was a very short dagger, which had a curved edge, with a green blade tip, while the rest of the blade was mostly silver, with 2 holes along the flat of it, with golden rings around them. The handle was also a bright golden color. Not that you could see this because of how dark it was, or because of the blood on the dagger. "It needs a bit of a clean, really." I chuckled, as I put it back. "He presented it as a gift to me upon joining. I had to sit through their talks upon what they expect of you as a member as well, it was boring as hell. But once I was done, I moved up to fight alongside him, and I've learned more about fighting in these past months than I have over my life so far."

"Wow..." The Jolteon sighed. "Your story is so much cooler than mine." He stated, sounding slightly upset. I shrugged in return.

"Just as well, I'm the coolest member in Nightfire" I again chuckled, getting a snort in response from the Jolteon. "It's not like anyone can really find us unless it's on accident. So you pretty much rely on Night finding you. And that also relies on you proving yourself to him. He probably saw something in you for him to save your hide." I dismissed nonchalantly.

"Why are we fighting the entire guild?" He asked. I hesitated as he asked it, the question catching me off guard. Not many people would question Night's decisions or why he was making them, it was more important that he helped keep them a lot safer, and got them more money. Money was probably the determining factor for a lot of Pokemon.

I turned towards him, looking to give an answer. I couldn't find any off of the top of my head. "I don't actually know..."I finally responded, shrugging again. "He has his own reasons for it. It just happens that his actions coincide with what I believe to be actions that align with my interests. So I don't question them."

"Well...what are your interests, then?" He asked again. His questions were beginning to get annoying, but I would allow him this one.

"I don't like the guild. They're all two faced bastard hypocrites" I accused, huffing slightly. "They claim to have the interests of townspeople at heart when they're only in it for the money. Every last one. See, they're all thieves and murderers too, except they slap a heroic label on top of it." I started scuffing the ground with my feet as I talked. "Why do you think an experienced team went after a thief like you? Money. You had a large reward on you. If they wanted to turn you in, they would have chased you when your bounty was first up, that way, you would be able to get the help you may have needed. There is still maybe 1 or 2 individuals in the entire guild that think this way. But the 99% of them, they don't care about you. You're just a walking bag of money to them."

"But, isn't that also the same reason you joined Nightfire? Getting the dagger was a prize, with monetary value, right?" He questioned. I was getting a bit worked up over the topic of conversation, and realized I'd gone a bit too far once he had asked. I sighed, trying to cool myself off.

"Yeah. It's almost the same. Except I don't get that from people that need it more than I do. I don't want a stupid label or badge that validates me to others. I'm a criminal. I really dislike guild members. I happen to have grown a like for killing. Goes a little hand in hand." I shrugged again, laying down on the floor. It was rather uncomfortable, but I wasn't going to moan about it. Again, the stars above me helped captivate me, make me at peace with myself again. "So joining Nightfire was my best shot" I concluded, sighing. I could just make out the Jolteon curling back up on the floor, seeing as I looked to be dozing off.

"Thanks" He muttered. It took me a moment to realize he was speaking to me, but I decided not to respond anyway. Speaking about what I thought helped strengthen my resolve for Nightfire slightly, helped take a step back, and understand that despite what I thought of Rolf and Blitz, I had every reason to hate them as much as any other guild member, if not more. But there was just something about them, that I couldn't place my finger on, that also made me want to save them. My own thoughts soon accompanied the rest of my mind in a deeper sleep, resting up for tomorrow.


End file.
